LETTERS

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Contents © 1998
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

December 1998 LETTERS

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Yes, your letter has always been informative and helpful to many, but it has been especially consoling to me and mine, because it came into being at a time when we had no voice, and felt isolated and abandoned by the Church.

Of course when we heard a rallying cry from News Notes, we could begin filling in the "dots" with like-minded people. It is so good to meet people around the county, at some function or other, and hear the question, "Do you get News Notes?"

Then and there a bond is made, and it has become like a stream, merging into a river. A band of pilgrims, going in the same direction, with truth as our goal. Jerusalem on a shining hill?! What joy. Thank you!

Yes, I'm sure you've been called a lot of names, but you can rejoice for being persecuted for the truth. For my part, I welcome anyone to make a criticism against News Notes, because when you're on the side of orthodoxy, it's easy to refute their shallow comments. Usually, that's why the enemies of the Church make an accusation, but they turn and run and take the coward's way out. There is no reasonable discussion with those in dissent.

I'd be proud to be included on the board of "Friends," because you have been a "true" friend to dare tell it like it is and try to wake up the luke warm. That's true charity.

-- Doris and Joe Farenbaugh
Escondido


DISGRACEFUL

I find this paper disgraceful. It is a gossip sheet. This cannot be pleasing to God.

--Name withheld


HATEMONGERS

You people are a bunch of hatemongers.

-- Name withheld


WE PRAISE PAPA

We praise Papa for your faithfulness to the Magisterium. Please do not get discouraged as every place there is good, evil tries to destroy. God Bless.

-- Greg and Carolyn Bartish
Carlsbad


ON THE OTHER HAND

I received your information about becoming a "Friend of News Notes." I realize that many good Catholics consider your newsletter to be top-notch.

I have one concern, however. How could you print a newsletter that many consider solidly Catholic, while on the other hand print the San Diego Reader? In the Reader, I have found many ads for psychic help (e.g. palm readers), which is against the Catholic faith. Also, some of the articles in the Reader seem to be devoid of moral worth, and instead just present situations of evil in a graphic way. The message I am reading is: these bad situations (the men-beating-women article, and the more recent prostitution article) are just an accepted part of life. Hence, my confusion.

--Patrick McCue
San Marcos


MORE USEFUL THAN APPEAL TO TRADITION

A letter (Elizabeth M. DeCristofaro) in November News Notes stated, "It is our Catholic tradition to kneel at the coming of our Lord."Actually that was the tradition back several decades, but was not always. I personally have no opinion on it, but think it is important to state positions accurately. Just like Communion in the hand was the original practice (that doesn't mean it is the best) there are often good reasons things change as well as bad ones. An appeal to what is most reverent may be more useful than an appeal to "tradition" which only indicates the tradition at any given moment. Remember 20 years from now you can say,"Standing is traditional."

--Frank Sullivan
San Marcos


EDUCATION LIBERATES

After many years away, I tried church recently, and frankly, I found it too dogmatic and dry which may account for so many recent wars based on religious differences and intolerance. Thanks in part to USD's academic freedom policy, students can reflect on G&L issues ("Gay & Lesbian Trailblazers Extolled at USD," November, 1998). Based on my observation of Hispanic America, education and critical thinking are not a high priority with the Catholic Church. But education liberates and sets us free! So, can the Catholic Church teach me why 5-15% of people in all countries of the world independent of race and religion are G&L? And the answer: Man's basically a sinner is unacceptable.

--Roger Newell
University City


MADAME TINGLEY AS USD GODMOTHER

I really like the idea of using the Kroc Center as a Marian Center for World Peace ("Letters," November issue). It would be the very heart of USD. In a way it reminds me of what Theosophical leader, Madame Katherine Tingley once tried to do on Point Loma in the early years of this century. She believed world peace was possible by human effort alone. She built a school to concretize the ideas of her predecessor, Madame Irena P. Blavatsky, the foundress of Theosophy. The Point Loma School, or Lomaland as it was called, trained children from infancy to be leaders who would help create world utopia of peace and harmony. She called it "School for the Revival of the Lost Mysteries of Antiquity." It was commonly known as the Raja Yoga school which was built around western occultism rather than eastern because she was trying hard to unite "the philosophic orient and the practical west." Though it was similar to Brook Farm, it was purposely designed to "bring in the new world order." It was to become a microcosm of a macrocosm, a model, for worldwide "centers of transformation." Tingley believed she could bring the Kingdom of God to earth, not violently by an apocalyptic Second Coming of Christ, but through education and legislation in the Christian spirit. But she had more in mind. She envisioned a "white city," an ideal community which would also serve as the Society's headquarters and a place where the theosophical way of life could be realized. The Point Loma experiment closed less than 50 years after it began and a little over 10 years after Tingley's death. It decayed from within the human heart for the Sacred Heart was absent. There are still some of the original buildings, in particular a renovated illuminated, purple, sphered, domed building close to the entrance of what is now Pt. Loma Nazarene College. Her ideas have left behind an aroma which has influenced San Diego because the city was very proud of "the Hill's" international reputation. When USD became so tied with the business community it too fell under the spell. Coincidentally under Tingley's leadership San Diego was already the world center of Theosophy, a religion which, according to recent studies, has since mutated and formed the basis of the New Age Movement.

Former USD president, Author Hughes, may have been more inspired than he realized when he spoke in glowing terms of a new "Education for a New Age," with USD in the vanguard of an educational "transformation" (but into whom?). The university now has the opportunity to extend the Divine Plan for universal brotherhood encapsulated as follows: "The Son reveals the Father, the Holy Spirit reveals the Son and Mary reveals the Holy Spirit." According to the great Marian saint, Maximilian Kolbe, her statement at Lourdes, "I am the Immaculate Conception" means she is the created Immaculate Conception whereas the Holy Spirit is the uncreated Immaculate Conception of the Father and the Son. Who sees her "in a certain sense" sees the Holy Spirit. The Holy Eucharist began in the womb of Mary. Like the first Apostles we need to go back to our mother's womb again and be born anew of her to be brothers of Jesus, resemblances of Jesus and Christ bearers for others. "Without Me you can do nothing." It is written in the mysterious symbol of the fleur-de-lis.

What about a curriculum with a degree in Mariology, incorporating a radically new and deeper understanding of Mary's role and influence in science, religion, philosophy, the arts, literature, and most of all in the lives of the saints she influenced? A real Education for a New Age of Jesus and Mary! We need this understanding of the role of Mary in the life of the Trinity, the Church and in our lives right now. Mary should be our model and if we accept her as mother, model, teacher and mistress, we will have the world peace promised by her at Fatima at the dawn of this chaotic century. She said her Son wishes that peace should come through her. What a perfect setting for the Seat of Wisdom, the Queen Mother, to teach and reign alongside her Son. San Diego is the home of the Mother Mission founded and consecrated to her by Blessed Juniper Serra. It is the hub of a natural north-south, east-west corridor calling pilgrims and sending them out richer in the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit. USD could be a little Nazareth, a "white city," a "Fortress on the Hill," as Bishop Buddy called it, and a place of true learning and a source of world peace.

As a post script, coming as she did from a background of both Puritanism and Masonry, Madam Tingley once said, ". . . [A]merica's highest destiny is to serve the world both materially and spiritually, . . . this high destiny is more assured if America keeps herself free and unshackled so that she will have more power, more enlightenment, and more resources for effective beneficence, both for herself and for the world at large." Admirable words and deeds on the surface, but as one goes deep inside her means to those ends one finds dark secrets, fear, and decay. Starting from the same desire with the Light of Christ as guide, the feeling is just the opposite. The closer to the center the more joy, peace, light and love of God and of all His Creation because of Him.

--Anna Marie Finnegan
Del Mar

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