2004 LETTERS
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Contents © 2004
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

LETTERS
February 2004

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What a shame it is that your newspaper is so needy of incendiary and offensive material that you resort to exploiting the immature opinions of a child to the degradation of an entire congregation of Gods people. In your "interview" of young Ryan Mulvey, (Young, Faithful, and Fighting, January 2004) you reveal some of the flaws of pre-Vatican II teaching, as well as the painful consequences of poor parenting and irresponsible journalism.

It is not worthwhile to dispute all of the naive statements made by your 15 year old, self educated scholar. It must be said, however, that your newspaper portrayed his statements as fact which insulted many people that work diligently to create a house for Our Lord, degraded priests that inspire over 2400 families to a Christ-like way of life, and criticized art and architecture that is not understood by an immature mind. Such portrayal is an embarrassment to our Catholic Church.

I imagine that the early Christians would be surprised to hear us being criticized for worshipping in an inadequate space, without kneelers and statues, as St. Gregory parishioners did while building their church. Or that Jesus had prescribed the architecture (stained glass windows?) to be used when consecrating His Body and Blood. In fact, the entire diatribe critiquing the structure of St. Gregory the Great is so mired in naiveté that it is laughable.

What is not laughable are the attacks made on the holy priests that serve at St. Gregory the Great. Father John and Fr. Ed spend their time assisting Father Jim Poulsen and helping the parishioners who give their time in over 50 different ministries. Their devotion at Mass is inspiring, as are their sermons and their wit. This young man does not seem to realize that the Liturgy of the Mass was not written by Christ but was written by men, and the words are meant to bring us closer to our Lord. Fr. John's celebration of the Mass does just that. The Liturgy has been updated -- not by Father John but by Vatican II.

Fr. Jim continues to allow families, boys and girls to serve in the celebration of the Eucharist. He has not, as printed in bold in your article, denied boys the privilege of serving at the altar. For Fr. Jim to capitulate to outdated traditions, to ban musical instruments based on the tastes of young Mulvey or to reduce the role of women in our celebrations would be to turn his back on the very ideals that St. Gregory the Great Parish has so enthusiastically embraced.

I realize that it is "inconvenient" for your critic to attend Mass elsewhere, despite the fact that he holds disdain of our music, sermons, liturgy and traditions. We at St. Gregory the Great thank the Lord every day for our wonderful parish lead by our devoted and very holy Pastor, along with Fr. John and Fr. Ed. We pray for the continuation of our community, and we pray that we all continue to understand Christ's message more fully. While it is certainly acceptable for our parishioners to hold their own opinions, it is distasteful for a shameful newspaper to publish the adolescent sentiments of one of our youth.

Most Sincerely,

Betty Otto
A Proud Member of St. Gregory the Great Parish

Editor responds: We did not "portray his statements as fact." As the correspondant pointed out, it was an interview which, de facto, means we asked for his opinions and printed them as such. We found Ryan to be possessed of a love of Christ, His Church, and its traditions uncommon in one so young.


ESPEDAL'S CHILDISH ATTEMPTS AT JOURNALISM

Responding to Mr. Franklin's adoration of Mr. Espedal's "Roamin' Catholic." "Irreverent innuendos" is a wonderful description of Mr. Espedal's sometimes childish attempts at journalism. However, Mr. Franklin should read more thoroughly the letters he attempts to discredit. I am and have been a Traditionalist long before he learned how to spell the word, let alone attempt to live as one. Also there is no Father Bud at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Lakeside so when replying to letters, try to get your letters straight in your mind. Your pompous statement that there are no more than two in your little "den of thieves" leaves one to wonder how long your head has been buried in the sand. Between Oregon and Washington, liberalization has found a great breeding ground. There is no denying that there is much liberalization and anti-Catholicism in our state, but be assured there are many of us who defend the Faith and live it as should be.

Thank you;

F.R. Sprecco,
Lakeside


PRAYERFUL REPETITION IS NOT A PROBLEM

This letter is in response to John Brizzolara's recent article: "Notes From a Lapsed Catholic -- The Rosary." Mr. Brizzolara near the end of his article on the rosary, raises a seeming objection to praying the rosary from his King James bible based on Jesus' warning against the use of "vain repetition" found in Matthew 6:7. This is often raised by non-Catholic Christians who erroneously emphasize "repetition" as the basis for their objection. Using a King James (Protestant) bible we can find repeated prayer in the following places: Psalm 136 the exact same phrase is repeated over and over in 26 consecutive verses, In Heaven in Revelation 4:8 wherein the words "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come" are repeated by God's creatures who "do not rest day or night" saying the aforementioned praises over and over, Jesus himself uses repetition in the Garden of Gethsemane after finding the apostles asleep when they should have been praying with Our Lord. The King James says in Matthew 26:44 that "So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words."

So, if repeated prayer is good enough for Jesus, is used in heaven, and the Holy Spirit inspired the Psalmist to use it, it would seem that the problem is not with repetition, but with vain repetition. Here Jesus points to the disposition of the heart not the use of repetition in prayer.

More could be said but I gotta run and go say that biblical prayer (see Luke 1:28, 42), the rosary. Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Brian M. Duffy


ESPEDAL MAKES HER LAUGH

I laugh out loud when I read your Roamin' Catholic articles. In years past I used to get so upset with some of the idiocy that goes on in some parishes. Thank God there are some parishes where (for the most part) the liturgy is performed in a respectful, theologically correct manner.

Alice,
Sun City

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