I just finished watching Father Kearns’ interview on EWTN and am so looking forward to subscribing to the National Catholic Register. It is the first news media or magazine that I have been inspired hearing about in years and years.

Laurel Pauline
Clifton Park, New York

I love Mark Shea’s commentary. Sadly enough, he’s right: Millions were shocked. Millions didn’t understand.

Words such as “small gesture of kindness” and “generous gesture” don’t seem to be used about Pope Benedict, but they should. They’re accurate.

Thank you for a great commentary.

Janet Meyer

La Crosse, Wisconsin

I’ve been “away,” I guess, three years or so; away in that my subscription to the Register had elapsed and I was living in a sterile no-Register, no-real-Catholic-news world.

The Register’s recent bargain subscription offer was one my financial status could handle so I’m back in the fold.

It’s fortuitous that my first issue carries your piece, “Loss, Gain and Grace” (Aug. 5). It’s an honest, powerful statement and faith-filled. Being a father of eight, with 26 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, it is something I can relate to. To belabor the cliché: I’ve been around the block and back again. (It is probably fairer to say “we’ve.”)

It’s just so uplifting for us to learn of young couples with rock-bound faith. I’m not too surprised when I learn many — like Tim Drake — are converts who traditionally know their Catholic faith better than many of us of the dawdling cradle variety.

Thank you for the part you play in enriching the ministry of the Catholic press, so important in maintaining its vitality.

Aubert Lemrise

Peru, Illinois

Melinda Selmys, in her column on art (“The Power of the Artist,” Sept. 2) covers all forms of artistic expression.

Pertinent to the discussion might be Psalm 45, where it asks the mighty one to ride on in triumph for the cause of truth, goodness and right. And then St. Theophilus, (taken from the Book of the Hours) comments that: “It is like this. Those who can see with the eyes of their bodies are aware of what is happening in this life on earth. They get to know things that are different from each other. They distinguish light and darkness, black and white, ugliness and beauty, elegance and inelegance, proportion and lack of proportion, excess and defect. The same is true of sounds we hear: high or low or pleasant. So it is with the ears of our heart and the eyes of our mind in their capacity to hear or see God.”

So there you have it all in a nutshell: all the fundamentals of art. The artist lives like all of us in a chaotic world.

What he should do is to reflect the truth, goodness and right he sees in God’s own creation and for a moment to bring order out of chaos and show it on canvas or on a score of music.

What happens is that the viewer or listener’s capacity to see or hear God is thereby enhanced, a brief foretaste of heaven itself. Besides its technical merits, art should be judged on that basis. The worst heresy one can commit is to ask: “How much do you think it’s worth?”

What is bad about bad art, as Ms. Selmys points out, is that it not only sinks into chaos, it also fails more importantly to allow man to see and enjoy God in his beauty and goodness.

Lawrence Petrus

Rocky River, Ohio

Relevant to your recent coverage of Blessed Mother Teresa: When she was alive, she and the Missionaries of Charity fed the hungry, clothed the naked, sheltered the homeless, comforted the sick, consoled the dying. Their charity and good deeds planted within others seeds of love from which love grows.

Ironically, when she was alive, a prominent columnist castigated Mother Teresa, implying that she was a sexual pervert, and that her charitable work simply served to buttress the social, economic and political status quo.

Why the attack on Mother Teresa’s character? Because those who already have lost their purity naturally envy, hate, ridicule and persecute people with purity of heart, mind and soul who are trying to help others remain pure, too.

Mother Teresa possessed the beauty that causes one to think of Christmas, Easter and God. It is not the beauty exhibited by men’s magazine models, television and movie idols and contestants in Miss Universe pageants, rather Mother Teresa possessed a moral and spiritual beauty — reflected in her face, eyes and good deeds — which transcends mere physical beauty.

Haven Bradford Gow

Greenville, Mississippi

Concerning the letter in your paper, “Defiant Priest” (Sept. 16), I agree with what you printed about Father Gruner and his magazine. I hope that will not cause people to reject Our Lady’s important message of Fatima. This Oct. 13 will be the 90th anniversary of the “Miracle of the Sun” at Fatima.

Please consider printing the true story of Fatima. Many Catholics today don’t know that the Blessed Mother asked for daily Rosary, monthly confession, Communion of reparation on First Saturday of each month, consecration to her immaculate heart, plus prayer and penance for the conversion of sinners and the souls in purgatory.

There is a lot more to be said about Our Lady’s apparitions at Fatima, I pray people will get a book about it at a Catholic bookstore.

Patricia M. Erdner

Roxboro, North Carolina

Editor’s note: Thank you. Remember — our editor’s note warning incorrectly identified “America Needs Fatima” as a Father Gruner publication. It is not. Additionally, several asked for a more in-depth look at the Fatima phenomenon. Our senior writer, Tim Drake, has provided an analysis. See it on the previous page.

The Register’s article “Now Polygamy” (Sept. 2) certainly caught my attention.

I look at the male in the photo as an egotistical person and the women, who look very much alike, as having no self-confidence.

Who supports all these children, such as Bountiful’s unofficial leader, Winston Blackmore, who has reportedly fathered 100 children?

It seems to me that in the Old Testament, only the first wife and offspring were benefited by any sharing of wealth in polygamous marriages.

Ellen L Unger

Texarkana, Arkansas

I agree with your editorial, “Vetoing Children’s Health Care?” (Sept. 30), in the sense that we cannot allow Planned Parenthood and other such pro-abortion organizations to prevail through legislation.

On the other hand, I must say that the lack of universal child healthcare (including immunizations) in the United States is scandalous and morally indefensible.

In my reading on moral issues and teachings concerning my duties as a Catholic physician and social justice teachings of the Catholic Church, I find nothing that does not support an attitude that basic healthcare to children ought to be free and accessible. In a wealthy country like the United States, this should be particularly so.

It is an area of grave concern in the current and all previous U.S. administrations. (I lived in the United States for 10 years and my two elder children were born there.)

Supporting universal free child healthcare does not make me left-wing or socialist; in fact, my political views are extremely conservative, but like basic education, basic healthcare for our young should not even be debated.

Dr. Astrid Windfuhr

Dunedin New Zealand