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Contents © 1997
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

December 1997 LETTERS

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Thank you for publishing the full-page layout with constructive comments of the recent pastoral, "Always Our Children." This was truly a service to all of your Catholic readers. How I wish the committee on Marriage and Family of the NCCB had gotten and incorporated those excellent comments before issuing their pastoral. The basic pastoral with those supplemental comments provides an excellent presentation of Catholic values on the subject. Because of your News Notes presentation of those Catholic values, your readers are much less likely to fall prey to attempts to twist and distort the teaching of the Church. Personally, I would rather distribute copies of your supplemented presentation than copies of the originally issued pastoral.

-- James Harris
Clairemont


MANY CATHOLICS ARE TOTALLY UNABLE TO EXPLAIN THEIR CHURCH

Some of the letter writers in the November issue may have missed your point in printing the October article "The Bible Made Me Do It."

The former Catholics interviewed in that article seemed to me to point out the sad fact that many Catholics are totally unable to explain why their Church is the one true Christian Church, and are easily misled by proselytizers at the door, on radio, or TV.

Apparently, the former Catholics had not noticed that much of the liturgy of daily and Sunday masses is taken directly from the Bible; or that the chief doctrines of the Church are substantiated by the Bible.

They had not learned that the Church came before the New Testament, and that the books of Bible which we hold to be inspired were chosen by the early Church. If the "Bible only" theory were correct, why are there thousands of Bible Christian churches each differing from the others?

It seems to me that many Catholics assumed they had "learned enough" in Catholic schools or CCD classes, and never refreshed that education by reading good Catholic literature when they became adults.

I would like to see every parish priest teaching in Sunday homilies the Catholic Faith as presented, simply and concisely, in Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth, a 30-page booklet with Bible references published by Catholic Answers. We must be able to defend our Faith!

-- Margaret L. Johnson
La Mesa


BISHOP BROM HAS GOT TO BE ORTHODOX

Regarding "I Can't Claim Invincible Ignorance Anymore" (November): Bishop Brom has got to be orthodox or he wouldn't have imprimatured Jesus, Peter and the Keys. This book tells it like it is.

You need to get back in the graces of the bishop. You've finally found your connection. Jesus, Peter and the Keys would not have been imprimatured by 75 percent of the bishops. Your next issue needs to give Bishop Brom some credit for being orthodox in promoting the role of Peter.

-- Louise Antonene
San Diego


THE BOOK CHANGED MY LIFE

I want to commend Christopher Zehnder's article on Jesus, Peter and the Keys. It's nice to see someone being positive about the Catholic Faith. I read this book about six months ago. I was looking at becoming Eastern Orthodox and after I read the book I said to myself that the Church is correct and I must fight for orthodoxy within Catholicism. The book changed my life from being a cradle Catholic to being on fire as an apologist for the Catholic Faith.

-- Tim McCavey
San Diego


FREE FROM THE YOKE OF GOD

I have been reading your mag off and on for years, as I pick it up at a local eatery. I have been impressed with two things. First, your advocacy of the pro-life stance, and second, your never-ending battle against the liberal factions of the Church.

That there is even a discussion over abortion is incomprehensible in the first place, but the creeping influence of liberalism in Faith is something quite destructive to individuals caught up in its seductive embrace. Let me now say I am of the Protestant side of Christianity, but spent my whole youth in Catholicism, being the product of traditional teaching (I still remember my Latin responses from altar boy days).

The plague of liberalism is something that haunts us both, as you are all too familiar with homosexuality and the ordination of women in the Protestant ranks!

Does it not confirm the sinful nature of Man? That autonomous man seeks to be free from the yoke of God, and wants what is right in his own eyes, is proof of the calamity of Original Sin.

My side is handicapped by the absence of a central authority, such as the Vatican, to check the unorthodox schemes of those who "know better." And isn't it interesting that American Catholics and American Protestants -- the products of a liberal political base -- are in the vanguard of world opinion as to what is acceptable to the here and now? Our Bible seems to be clear: that God changes not, that he is no respecter of persons, and biblical principles do not change with time -- only the players.

Keep up the good work, and remind the faithful that our allegiance is to God, not the whimsical notions of man, however lofty and good-intentioned. There is only one standard to live by, and if in doubt, keep reading that Holy Word! (And pray, that if there be any sinful way in you, that it be exposed to the Light of the Word, and rooted out).

-- Dan Ashour
via the Internet

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