2005 LETTERS
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Contents © 2005
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

LETTERS
June 2005

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This sad state of affairs is just another example of the apostasy instigated by the ambiguous "teachings" of the Second Vatican Council that has led many Catholics to lose their faith over the years, and consequently, their very souls. Does this sound too harsh? Not really.

Fr. Ian Taylor attempted to preach hell and damnation of those who commit mortal sin — if they don't go to Confession and amend their lives. Bravo to Fr. Ian! A real pastor of souls; trying to keep them on the straight and narrow in order to attain the Beatific Vision (I wonder if Fr. Rapp and company believe in the Beatific Vision?).

My last comment is addressed to the loyal parishioners of St. Peter's: please, don't wait any longer, get out of the new order "Catholic" Church and get into the real Catholic Church! Return to Tradition! There are plenty of sites where one can hear and assist at the traditional Latin Rite of Mass — the Mass that was never abrogated nor forbidden by any Pope or council and does not need the "permission" of any bishop to be said! God Bless Fr. Ian Taylor.

Eugene R. De Lalla,
Troy, NH

DOUBLE CONTRIBUTIONS FOR BUD AND BERNIE

Phil Leonelli
Fallbrook

BUD AND BERNIE STUCK IN THE '70S

When I was attending there Fr. Bud said that Humanæ Vitæ and the Church's teaching against contraception was not infallible papal teaching and so people did not have to obey it or believe it. He said that Our Lady was not sinless her whole life but only up until the birth of Jesus. There were also liturgical abuses in direct disobedience to the Magisterium of the Church. I just don't understand why he believes these things. He can be most charming. Pray for his heart to open to the Holy Spirit and enkindle the fire of His love.

Anonymous

BUD AND BERNIE ARE STAUNCH CATHOLICS

I do not know what is really going on in the minds and hearts of the fifty or so people (out of approximately seven thousand parishioners), but it may be characterized as evil.

I could respond to many of the remarks made by the folks in the article but there is one that I will enlarge upon that is a pretty good example of their misconceptions.

Dave Swanson connected the name of our parish retreat, "Omega Point" with some teachings in a book called Christ Denied. "He (Swanson) looked at the retreats in a whole new way." He became convinced that Fr. Bud agrees with Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's statement "I am essentially pantheist in my thinking and temperament," because we called the retreat the "Omega Point." Sit down everyone. The retreat was called "Omega Point" to try to create more interest in the very same evangelization retreat we have offered for the past eight years. This retreat is squarely and totally Catholic. It covers the sacraments, Scripture and ultimately places retreatents in a small faith community group which meets weekly to grow in their Catholic faith through prayer, Scripture study, and good works.

Pantheistic? I am shocked and very angry that you print false and inflammatory words about two Catholic priests that are respected and loved by thousands in our faith community. You subtitled your article Pantheist Pastor Pushes our Popular Priest based on Swanson's disjointed reasoning. This is truly pathetic.

Terry Hawthorne

SHE SAID, HE SAYS

[This letter was edited for length. The spirit remains unaltered. — Ed.]

With respect to the article entitled "Fallout in Fallbrook" by Stanford Espedal, I found it to be very informative and well written. The situation at St. Peter's was presented in a professional manner with each statement supporting the thrust of the article being attributable to an identified person or document with the appropriate quotations so that the reader could accept the basis for the majority of the article being credible. Mr. Espedal's adherence to basic journalistic standards while adding his own gift for writing made for a very interesting article. When a controversy exists that is worth bringing to the attention of your readers and your paper publishes a well-written and properly researched article about the matter, then our community's the better for it.

However, I was very disappointed with the complete lack of adherence to the simplest standards for good journalism with respect to the interview titled "New Age Invasion." Both the journalist and you, the editor, allowed the interviewee, Ms. Moira Noonan, to make numerous serious, but completely unsubstantiated accusations. Although the interview freely allows her to claim after claim of heretical "new age" activity and teaching throughout our diocese being foisted upon the Catholic faithful, not once in the interview is she forced to identify a particular person that she claims is actually involved in the flawed teaching. As far as the reader can tell, this is all conclusions of her own misunderstandings or imagination. Her claims about what occurred at a basic catechist course she attended at a North County parish are entirely incorrect. That is my parish and my wife and I were there for that course and I attended all but one of the 14-week, three-hour course lectures. Her claims that she "was told by this instructor not to mention Mary, the rosary, statues, novenas, or any of the superstitious stuff" never happened in any of the 13 classes I attended. Furthermore, this same instructor never told any of us that "no stories in the Bible were literal events." He never said that the "Bible is nothing but stories, not an accurate account" as Ms. Noonan claims. I have all my notes and reading material from that course. I read every piece of material included in the course materials including the entirety of the Catechism, cover to cover. Through the course on numerous occasions this particular instructor emphasized over and over that the Bible was the inspired word of God from beginning to end.... Furthermore, he never denigrated the traditional devotions of the Church, or the statues of the Saints and the Holy Mother and he certainly never made any statement during the course claiming such to be mere superstitions....

Ms. Noonan is entitled to her opinion. But let her express her unsupported opinion by having her write a letter to the editor or [an editorial.] You do great disservice to your readership, damage to the overall importance of the issue presented, and cause serious damage to your paper's credibility with respect to future articles when you allow this type of pure gossip to go out through your good paper to your readers.... You should seriously consider a retraction because many readers will know who Ms. Noonan was referring to when she identified the instructor as the director of religious education at a North County parish.

Yours in Christ,
Donald P. Tremblay

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

I am sickened by your article about the [Saint Augustine High School production of Jesus Christ Superstar] (Little Notes, May 2005). Who do you think you are? Did you attend this production? What gives you the right to criticize the young men and women who dedicated over 3 1/2 months to this play?

You have the nerve to call yourselves Christians? I think not! Ask yourselves — would Jesus act like this?

Margo Gallen-Toles
Mother of an OLP girl who was in the play!

GRANDPA WAS A MASON

The comments, well ... it is gossip and contemptible. Obviously no one opining here saw the production. Shame on them for even spouting a word to the public. The production did a great deal more than just offer religion, it gave children a chance to share and work together, to find their talents and present them as a gift to us all, I would say that is a terrific presentation of Christ, it was truly loving! Good for Saints, and Bravo.

Kay Lippincott
San Diego, CA

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