Regarding “Meddling in Politics” (May 30-June 5): Some people just don't get it. I mean those who write to say that “abortion, although an important issue, is just one of many issues.”

Those with their heads on straight, notably Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, have tried to explain many times that abortion is not “just” one issue. Nothing can possibly be more fundamental than the right to life. Of course, other issues are important. The moon is very important, but without the sun it would be of no use. Without the right to life, all other rights are only theoretical.

The crucial thing about abortion is that it is intrinsically, black-and-white, 100% wrong. The same, of course, applies to related right-to-life matters such as euthanasia and embryonic experimentation. But with all other issues it is different, whether it be health care, war, environmental concerns, economics or any of the myriad other issues of our times. Every one of them is debatable at the very least. Good people can have different slants on them. And every one of them is a moon dependent upon the sun.

To be actively opposed to abortion is part of being a Catholic. To actively oppose the election of any candidate who favors legal abortion is therefore part of being a Catholic.

DOROTHY STATHIS

Victoria, Texas

Your editorial comparing media coverage of developments in Nazi Germany to what's happening in America is on the mark (“Meddling in Politics,” May 30-June 5).

Europe had told the Church and Vatican to be silent and stay out of public affairs. When the Church did speak, priests and others were arrested and lay people slain by the Nazi regime. And various Nazis had the effrontery to still call themselves Catholic, or be listed as such by historians, since they had not been excommunicated.

And now dissenting Catholic politicians in America are telling the Church to be silent on what essentially are human issues rather than religious doctrine. Some are even threatening retaliation. And these are people who call themselves “Democrats.”

Robert J. Bonsignore

Brooklyn, New York