Temporal Benefits

Relative to “Roadside Memorials” (Culture of Life, Nov. 1 issue):

The article by Patty Knap was well-researched. I especially appreciated her compassion for the living who tend to these roadside memorials — otherwise known in the Southwest as descansos (the “rest” sites of the pallbearers Knap mentions).

Knap’s concluding premise was hardly expected, however, summarized by her statement, “There’s simply no benefit to the deceased whatsoever to a roadside shrine.” While I will not argue her well-defended arguments regarding the purgation requisite a departed soul prior to heaven, the various remedies she proffers for the souls of the dearly departed, i.e., Mass, prayers and indulgences, are offered by the living who remember the dead.

A roadside memorial serves to remind the living to offer Mass, prayers and merit indulgences for the deceased. That is a benefit to the deceased and to the living. There is precious little holy ground remaining in our land — dedicated to helping the living reach out to God.

Our church grounds, our monasteries, our convents, our school chapels and our cemeteries all help the living in their pilgrimage on earth to God. Why disparage the sanctity of the small patch of earth where a saint may have passed to everlasting life?

When I pass a Catholic church, a cemetery or even a descanso on the side of the road, I make the Sign of the Cross and say a prayer for the deceased and the living ones who need those memorials.

         Deacon Pete Broussard

         Coos Bay, Oregon

 

Trumped by Faith

Regarding “For Some Latinos, Concerns about Immigration Align Them With Trump” (Nov. 12, NCRegister.com):

This article’s affirmation is misleading and anti-Catholic truth. Supporters of Donald Trump want to be Catholics or non-Catholics who do not sincerely love Jesus, who do not want to obey his holy words. All they want is to be Christians without carrying crosses in their paths to Jesus, who had neither a place to be born nor a place to rest his head — false Christians who do not want to follow Jesus but the prince of this world. They are false Christians who neither obey Jesus nor love Jesus by helping him to reach the poor people in their basic human needs.

These people are always ready to ridicule in public our holy Catholic Church. They do not understand that the majority or most of the people created by God living in the whole world are poor, very poor, and miserably and perpetually poor. [In my opinion] Donald Trump hates poor people and other races that are not his. He is constantly seeding, feeding and spreading racial hatred against Hispanics and other races in the mind of Caucasians who are Caucasians first rather than children of God.

As far as our love for the United States and for all the rest of America’s nations of this hemisphere, as Hispano-Americans, there must be no doubt in the mind of anybody that we love the United States and all the other countries of the Americas, because in our homelands our teachers and parents always taught us to love each other as brothers and children of Mary and Jesus. My highest and wishful dream is to do as much as possible to be able to see, some day, our holy Catholic Church members act like the first Christians did and live in companionship with our Blessed Mother.

         Jorge Diaz

         Seattle, Washington

 

Editor’s note: This letter was edited for length and brevity.

 

Proud Supporters

We always view the new edition of the Register with anticipation, but the Dec. 27 issue was perhaps the best ever. We found at least five articles that really excited us and contained very significant opinion and information. They were about Mary’s house at Ephesus, Eucharistic miracles, why the Church is growing in Africa but not in Germany, God warning an unbelieving nation and why Syrian Catholics feel abandoned.

These types of articles provide needed instruction to Catholics, lay and clergy, about what we need to do to save the Church in the West. We are proud to be supporters of Mother Angelica’s worldwide Catholic enterprise.

         Mike and Lou Ann Kilmer

         Wyalusing, Pennsylvania

 

No Home in the Church

Pertinent to “The No. 1 Thing I’ve Learned From Talking With Fallen-Away Catholics” (Culture of Life, Dec. 13 issue):

Katie Warner wrote a nice column. But what does one do when one is Eastern-rite Byzantine Catholic and was going for years to a local Eastern-rite Maronite-Catholic parish and the newer priest decides he does not like you and bans you — and his bishop backs him up?

Because of that, I no longer go to church at all. I will make myself go on Christmas and Easter (makes me a C&E Christian). But I have no home in the Church and don’t really feel comfortable in the Latin Churches. The Year of Mercy? Maybe someone needs to tell that to the priest and the bishop.

You can add this to your stories of “someone in the Church wronged me,” for it was the very priest and his bishop. Isn’t this why St. John Chrysostom stated that the road to hell is paved by the skulls of priests who’ve done wrong?

                        Name, city and state withheld

 

Katie Warner responds: I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my column, “The No. 1 Thing I’ve Learned From Talking With Fallen-Away Catholics.” First of all, my heart goes out to you for the situation you describe and the pain you likely still carry with you as a result of being hurt by people whom you looked to as models of holiness. Obviously, the wound runs deep, as it keeps you from practicing your faith in the context of a church community.

Your experience is not entirely uncommon. I have, unfortunately, heard others share heartbreaking stories of leaving the Catholic Church (whether Eastern rite or Roman) after experiencing deep frustration, sadness, disappointment or other painful emotions stirred by a negative experience with a member of the clergy. It is entirely natural to expect priests and bishops to act with superior dignity, prudence, kindness and compassion toward every sheep within their flock, as ordained imitators of Jesus and models of his love for his people, the Church. Yet, unlike Christ, priests and bishops — like us — are men who sometimes sin, make poor decisions and fail to model Christ, whom they serve in their vocations. They really need God’s grace as much as we do, and arguably more, given Satan’s intense spiritual attacks on the priesthood. Of course, this does not excuse the actions of priests or bishops, as it wouldn’t excuse our sinful or misguided actions, which inflict harm on others. But at the end of the day, we are called to forgive, and when the pain inflicted is great, the forgiveness Christ calls us to can be all the more challenging.

Forgiveness can bring an immense amount of healing to the person who has been hurt. The longer you carry the burden of this legitimately painful wound with you, the wider the wedge it will put between you and Christ, who wants to heal you and restore a relationship with you in and through the Church.

 

Promoting Propaganda?

It troubles some of us that the pages of your excellent orthodox, Catholic paper were used for a propaganda piece for the alarmists who think that they, rather than Almighty God, can save the universe.

“Climate Change and the Church” (page one, Nov. 29 issue) promotes their agenda, and it is unfortunate that a photo of our pro-abortion president appears in the National Catholic Register.

It often seems that far too many bishops and misguided leaders in our Catholic Church parrot what secular humanists promote.

One wonders if our religious shepherds at times seek human approval rather than the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

         Constantino and Maryann Santos

         Atascadero, California

 

Check the DNA

The presence of a suspect at the scene of a crime can be established beyond a shadow of a doubt by finding his or her DNA at the crime scene. This is certainty, thanks to modern science.

Your recent article in the Dec. 27 issue on two Eucharistic miracles (“Eucharistic Miracle?” Culture of Life) states that human DNA is present in both miracles.

Perhaps the possible implications of this fact — namely, a powerful scientific proof of two Eucharistic miracles, if we have a DNA match — has been overlooked.

One miracle was 1,300 years ago in Lanciano, Italy. The other was in 1996 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This is DNA separated by time and distance. If the DNA samples are identical, then any open-minded person must say, “Yes, these are miracles.”

                        David F. Born

                        Uniontown, Ohio

 

Unintended Benefits

I read with great interest your article on the Newman Institute (“Newman Institute Offers Words to Live by,” Education, Jan. 10 issue). When I was in college, some 35 (or so) years ago, we had a required course of study called “World Studies.”

This encompassed art, history, music and philosophy. The last included comparative religions, primarily Christianity, Taoism and Buddhism. The entire study of these courses made for a well-rounded education.

The small college I attended (Eisenhower College in Seneca Falls, N.Y.) is no longer in existence, but the excellent education the college afforded was well worthwhile. I have had many [good] experiences, drawing from the “World Studies” curriculum pertinent ideas and facts that I have encountered in my everyday life.

Reading about the Newman Institute was very encouraging. Cultural studies complement more specific majors. I cannot overemphasize the benefit of these courses. Besides being educational, they were enlightening and, yes, fun. I wish the students and faculty well in their endeavors.

                        Elizabeth Turner

                        Syracuse, New York

 

Focus on Faith

Regarding “Does Catholic Faith Dictate a Position on Gun Control?” (Nation, Jan. 10 issue):

To answer the question in the headline, No, the Catholic faith does not dictate a position on gun control. The Catholic faith dictates how to follow Jesus. It dictates that people do not murder in any way, shape or form. It dictates that Catholics are to serve as role models in society so that others will want to imitate us and follow Jesus.

Although the murder of innocent people by firearms is terrible, I don’t understand why the focus is on the firearms. People are murdered by knives, cars, hammers, poison and many other objects. The object used is never the focus until it is a firearm.

Focusing on firearms is an easy out for all of the politicians who have failed to keep the American citizens safe. And now it seems that even some Catholic leaders, like Archbishop Blase Cupich, have jumped on the bandwagon by using inflammatory comments like “turned our streets into battlefields.” We need to start focusing on the real problem: the change in our culture. Nobody wants to tackle the tougher problem of why our culture is now generating so many people willing to commit something as evil as mass murder.

The Catholic faith should dictate questioning how our culture has changed.

                        Bill Lebensorger

                        Gurnee, Illinois