Rave Review

Thank you for an excellent newspaper. I get the whole story, both the good news and the bad news. Keep up the good work.

FRANCES SIMECEK

Bay Village, Ohio

Johnny Embryo, Meet Mary Zygote

There's another problem associated with frozen embryos that needs to be addressed (“So Many Frozen Embryos, So Few Answers,” July 29-Aug. 4).

Here's a zygote from couple AB introduced into the uterus of Mrs. C. Here's another zygote from couple AB introduced into the uterus of Mrs. D.

What happens when Johnny C grows up and meets Mary D and they fall in love and want to marry? They are full siblings. Is anyone keeping track of this?

LOIS MANNING

Visalia, California

Kim's Courage

I want to thank you, “Kim,” for your courageous interview about your abortion experience and I want to encourage you to continue to share your story (“After Abortion: One Woman's Story,” July 22-28). Bearing this cross publicly is a heroic feat. Please do not be discouraged by criticism, but persevere and grow from it. These stories need to be told.

Our Lord's mercy and love is infinite and unfathomable. We all need to emulate Christ's perfect compassion for the sinner (and not just the repentant sinner). Our world is full of these walking wounded. Our Church is full. He is pouring out his graces and blessings upon you so that you might help all of us know the beauty of God's great love.

For those of us in the pro-life movement, please persevere and grow from this humble criticism (for I too have been guilty of this): Be compassionate and merciful always in everything you say and everything you do. Abortion is a secret that most women (and men) carry silently and painfully for years. Some of these children of God are in our rosary groups, they are in our adoration chapels, they are filling the pews of our churches every day of the week and they are in the pro-life movement. They hear our frustrations, our anger and our righteous indignation.

They need to hear our compassion and know our love, especially behind closed doors. Their stories need to be heard. We need to be willing to listen. They are the Pauls of the culture of life — [persecutors] redeemed and radically transformed. The Lord needs these humble soldiers in this war against the culture of death. Let us do nothing to discourage them from answering the call. And let us be humble enough to learn from them.

PHYLLIS DEERY STANTON

Jenkintown, Pennsylvania

Uncommon Vocation

It was in the chapel of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, in Boston's Prudential Center, that I chanced upon [Register] subscription cards, and so I hereby take advantage of this good offer!

I'm well acquainted with your paper, through friends' giving me their copies after they read them. Now, with a subscription of my own, I can pass the issues on to others, too.

Kindly convey to the staff my great appreciation for your recent story on consecrated virgins (“Virginity as a Vocation,” May 6-12). A good friend was one of those quoted in the story, and there were one or two other quoted whom I also know. The article was quite good, I thought; in my 27 years of a consecrated virgin, I've answered all kinds of questions from all sorts of people with all types of attitudes (both positive and negative) toward this beautiful vocation, recently restored in the Church in the West and much misunderstood even after nearly 30 years since the English translation of the Latin document of promulgation of the restored rite, in 1970.

In my own experiences and conversations with people, I have always found it most useful to find out how much the person knows, and then connect that with whatever I have to say. In one sense, it is always going to be one-on-one word of mouth, but articles such as yours do help to give a general idea to folks. I find that what confuses people the most is that consecrated virgins are not religious, and neither does the U.S. Association of Consecrated Virgins function like a religious order — which, even today, is the only form of consecrated life with which most people are familiar, and with which they feel comfortable.

One can hardly blame people for not being at ease with unfamiliar forms of consecrated life, though, because of the very poor catechesis around the “changes” in the Church over the past three or four decades.

The general society and cultural milieu is of no guidance, is of no help, because of its lack of connection of any sort with God.

Thank you for publishing a good, intelligent, lively, interesting reliable paper.

God Bless you!

ANN E. STITT

Boston

Hero Delivery Device

Let me start by saying what a refreshing paper you produce. From the clarity of World News to the savvy movie reviews in Arts and Entertainment, there's plenty of good reading to be found in each issue. Thank you for restoring credibility to journalistic reporting.

I am compelled to write to seek more information on the “First Hour” lecture series about which you wrote in your July 8-14 issue (“The Breakfast Club Meets the Book of Virtues”). The idealism of youth is quickly snuffed out by the nihilism prevalent in popular culture, and enshrined by media moguls. What a great idea to bring our local heroes before our children to illuminate the deep joy of living the Gospel in the world.

Would you kindly provide your readers with any additional information on this program?

MARGEE W. SIMEO

Glen Ellyn, Illinois

Editor's Note: Contact the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, by calling 419-244-6711 or visiting http://www.toledodiocese.org

Praying the Register

In January of this year, I joined a pro-life organization called Concerned Women for America (CWA). It boasts an enrollment that surpasses NOW.

One of the strongest assets of CWA is its commitment to prayer for persons in leadership positions. CWA provides its members with prayer cards entitled “CWA ‘Key 16’ Prayer List,” on which we are to write in the names of our government, state and local leaders and it lists for us the names of our Supreme Court members.

Our members are committed to pray for these people daily.

The card is prefaced with words from 1 Timothy 2:1-2:

“I urge ... that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all those in authority.”

In the Aug. 5-11 issue of the Register, sadly, the article “Senate Democrats Seek to Screen Out Pro-Life Judges,” and the names of two Catholics, appear in the article.

After reading this piece of news, my decision wavered between writing directly to these Catholic members of the Senate or writing this letter. My decision went for the letter.

You see, I've added the names of Patrick Leahy and Ted Kennedy to my prayer list and will pray daily for their conversion of heart and mind. Also, I ask anyone who reads this to join me in prayer that God will make the final decision in favor of pro-life judges.

DORIS MADISON

Monroe City, Missouri

Shrek

I didn't see, and won't see, The Fast and the Furious — but I did take my Catholic family to see Shrek. And we all loved it. How can you lump these two films together?

I read your movie review and wondered if we'd seen the same movie. My wife and I were grateful to have a movie like Shrek to entertain the kids. There's a glut of the other kind of entertainment out there (sex, violence); Shrek is a sigh of relief.

Read into it all you want, but you can't beat the un-Disneylike ending. And sorry if the dragon had to blow out the Gothic cathedral windows. Where else did you expect the wedding to take place, the dungeon?

We still give Shrek two thumbs up.

JEFF BENOIST

Corpus Christi, Texas