Civil Discord

Regarding “A Question of Civility” (In Depth, Aug. 20 issue):

This article, written by Matthew Bunson, was well written and very informative, both with regards to the recent vicious and violent attacks by the ideological left and a historical identification of politically and racially driven violence.

However, I would like to know what “political violence from the right over the years” and specifically what “politics of personal destruction ... on both sides of the aisle” that has been perpetrated by the “right” bears equivalence to that being perpetrated by the “left”?

These statements suggest an effort to artificially give a balanced analysis in Mr. Bunson’s article, and if nothing else, simply throwing a bone to the left. 

         Paul Miller

         Grand Rapids, Michigan

 

Matthew Bunson responds: No bones were being thrown to the left. Evil knows no ideology or political party. Just as we have witnessed political and social violence from liberal radicals in the United States, radicals with warped conservative values have contributed at times to the carnage, from lynching black people and stabbing bystanders trying to intervene against racist taunts of a Muslim woman to bombing abortion businesses.

 

Key Point Misssed?

The otherwise excellent article “A Question of Civility” (In Depth, Aug. 20 issue) missed a key point:

The current conflict is due to fundamental disagreements about what America should be.

Back in the days of JFK, LBJ and Hubert Humphrey, conservatives and liberals disagreed about issues, with the exception of Democrat-supported racism in the South, where people of goodwill could honestly have different solutions.

Today, however, the Democrat politicians, and a portion of people who vote Democrat, embrace positions that are intrinsically evil.

The Democrat Party has made a sacrament out of abortion; they’ve voted to remove God from their platform; they’ve declared that Catholic nuns can be forced to participate in providing abortions; they’ve declared that men can use women’s bathrooms; they’ve declared that same-sex “marriage” is great; they’ve decided that a gay baker does not have to bake a cake citing a Bible verse he doesn’t like, but a Christian baker must make a cake for a gay wedding; and they’ve decided that a public-school football coach who prays on a football field after a game by himself is violating the Constitution.

Just as it’s hard to be civil to a Nazi, it’s hard to be civil to people who do everything in their power to persecute the Catholic Church, as well as all other Christians, while simultaneously pushing for the mass murder of the unborn.

The good news is that most Democrat voters do so because they don’t know the truth. The media is working ceaselessly to distort what the average voter thinks is true.

While we need to be civil when the left is saying that violence by antifa against people they don’t like — which range between Charlottesville Nazis to Portland Republicans — is okay, we also need to be fairly clear in our denunciations.

         Tom Trinko

         Fremont, California

 

Saintly Bishop

I enjoyed reading the June 25 coverage of the American candidates for sainthood (“Sanctity in the USA”).  I knew one of the Venerables, Bishop Alphonse Gallegos, of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, here in Sacramento and have a memory of him I would like to share that shows his heroic virtue.

On Aug. 24, 1991, Bishop Gallegos and his driver (the bishop had limited vision) went to a well-known abortion facility that was constantly “defended” by raucous, pro-abortion and militant feminists. 

The bishop wanted to pray for the end of abortion there. 

At one point, he and the driver knelt on the sidewalk and began to pray out loud.

The pro-abortion group of about a dozen seemed to go berserk — screeching with rage. 

It was as if Satan himself was there. The scene is documented on videotape.

This went on for several minutes. All during this time, Bishop Gallegos and his driver remained on their knees in prayer.

Less than two months later, the bishop died in an unfortunate car accident as he was returning home from participating in a Rosary to end abortion. He is fondly remembered in Sacramento and did live a life of heroic virtue.

         Laurette Elsberry

         Sacramento, California

 

Novus Ordo

Pertinent to “Eight Modern Errors to Know and Avoid” (In Depth, June 25): I appreciated most of what Msgr. Charles Pope wrote.

However, when he listed No. 7, Anthropocentrism (the tendency to have man at the center and not God), I was shocked to see he included the liturgy as an “error” that should be avoided.

And I quote: “The liturgy, as commonly celebrated, seems more about us than God. Even the Eucharistic Prayer, which is directed entirely to God [um … isn’t the whole Mass directed entirely to God?], is usually celebrated facing the people.”

Really? That’s an error?

My view is different. Why shouldn’t the Mass be celebrated facing the people instead of a wall?

Isn’t God everywhere? Aren’t we told that we, the congregation, are all filled with God?

Just because the priest faces toward the congregation during the Mass does not mean he faces away from God.

He’s still facing the chalice and Host, regardless of where the people are. I’m a mere layperson. I struggle with the Latin form of the Mass, where the priest, with his back turned, performs actions we can’t see and mumbles words we can’t hear or understand.

It seems like the one place where the Church falls flat on engaging the senses.

So perhaps Msgr. Pope judges me to be in error there — perhaps he’d say I’m too focused on self during a Latin Mass. I thank the Second Vatican Council for helping with this issue.

I admit, I’m thrilled and elevated every time I attend Mass where I can actually see and hear what is going on (especially during the consecration), understand what is said, and participate in the process.

God has given us our senses and our ability to pray and to know him through those senses. And he has instilled within us an awareness of the spiritual. To me, having the congregation participate in worship and be able to see what happens during the celebration of the Mass is not an “error” and doesn’t marginalize God.

Instead, I believe it helps us integrate our bodies with our spirit in a holy and creative way, and brings us ever deeper into the mystery of the Incarnation, the transubstantiation, and the beauty of the Mass.

         Ellen Tomaszewski

         Richland, Washington

 

The editor responds: Msgr. Pope did not say the Mass wasn’t directed toward God.

He called out the modern tendency to focus inward, not outward toward God, at Mass.

Here is the entire comment, with my italics for emphasis: “This is especially evident in the liturgy, not intrinsically, but as practically and widely celebrated. Our architecture, songs and gestures, incessant announcements and congratulatory rituals are self-referential and inwardly focused. The liturgy, as commonly celebrated, seems more about us than God. Even the Eucharistic Prayer, which is directed entirely to God, is usually celebrated facing the people.”

Everything at a Catholic church, from the sanctuary to the stained glass to the congregation itself, is supposed to be oriented toward God at Mass. And that includes our posture of prayer.

 

Church Leaders Bullied

I read with consternation the lead article in your Sept. 3 issue, “Racism on Main Street.”

However, it did explain why our pastor’s column included a call to face the “evils of racism, hatred and prejudice” in our country (this in a column all about hurricane relief).

So I read in the Register article that Catholic leaders in the U.S. have become “galvanized” against these sins in our culture, which they say were on full display in Charlottesville. And bishops and priests are to put out the word in their churches and schools.

I am appalled. Charlottesville was a strange event, with many questions that have gone unanswered and with ugly violence on both sides. But for years certain parties in our country have been drumming up conflict between the races to beat the band. The story is always one-sided in the major media: Blacks are targeted with hatred by whites. But where are these hateful whites? The white supremacists who tried to have their idiotic rally in Charlottesville are a tiny fraction of the American public. If the police had done their job and protected their gathering, it would have been a non-event. But it turned into a hideous spectacle, and now can be used to launch cries of how much “hate” is afoot in our country.

It feels like the Catholic Church might be trying to jump on the “We Don’t Hate Anybody” wagon in order to stay out of the crosshairs of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is ready to label as a hate group any principled organization that’s not on the political left.

I am so weary of being accused, as a white person with traditional Christian values, of harboring racism and hatred, along with the good people in my church, my community and my country, most of whom are willing to show charity and generosity to people of all races and ideologies. These accusations are made repeatedly, both in a general manner and in a very pointed, personal way. Now the cry is coming from my own Church. I believe our Church leaders are being played by the hate brokers, who are bullying them into making a great flurry over a statistically small problem, which will divert them from working on critical moral issues we should really be tending to.

         Ann Doyle

         St. Augustine, Florida

 

Correction

In “Stanley Rother: ‘Blessed’ Martyr” (In Person, Sept. 17 issue), an Archbishop [Joseph] Beltran reference was included. Joseph is Archbishop Beltran’s middle name. His name should have read: Archbishop [Eusebius] Beltran. The Register regrets the error.