We Will Never Forget

Relevant to “He Died With His Men” (May 28-June 3):

I was truly saddened recently to learn of the passing away of Joe Kastanek of Schuyler, Neb., whom I had the honor of working with in the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command in the early 1960s. Our job was to keep Titan II intercontinental ballistic missiles combat-ready for America’s nuclear defense during the darkest days of the Cold War.

I feel that his story is, like that of many other unsung veterans and Americans, the story of the true heroes of our time and country who stayed at their posts serving God, country and family until relieved of their earthly duty. I recall his competent, deliberate and quick action saving equipment and lives — including my own — in the dangerous work of handling hypergolic (self-igniting) missile propellants. Although reserved and unassuming himself, he left behind a true life legacy light-years greater than the modern ersatz heroes manufactured daily by our self-promoting media and politicians in today’s world.

His legacy is his successful life of courage and dedication to his God, country and noble family he had to leave behind to carry on until he sees them again someday. He is proof of the old truism: “There is no failure except in giving up.” And he never gave up. We needed men like him back then and we need them now. They are the greatness of America. We should learn from his example of hard work, courage and dedication to his family and revere his memory, and the real monument he left behind: his family.

As Americans, we must do no less than carry on such a legacy and that of countless others who have faded in the mists of time falling on the obscure battlefields of war and life while building our great country. The soldiers, the fathers, the mothers and the families who stayed true to their duty, even though they may have faltered: They are the true heroes of America and we must carry the torch of their sacrifices to the summit of their dreams of a safe and preserved America for all the ages.

Ed Nemechek

Landers, California

A College’s Blunder, Clarified

The College of St. Catherine is concerned about a Campus Watch item headlined “Anti-Life Links.” Published in the April 2-8 edition of the Register, it alleges that the college’s website encourages the use of contraception and abortifacient devices. That is categorically untrue. Here are the facts:

We routinely post on our health-center website third-party software that includes information on a wide variety of topics, ranging from cancer screening to depression and the common cold. Any references contrary to Church teachings are removed before posting. In this case, a new employee posted the information in mid-February, unaware that it contained offensive information deep within the software package.

I am absolutely confident that the College of St. Catherine enforces policy consistent with the Church’s teaching and that we are diligent in making sure our staff understand and abide by our policies. This web posting was a simple and innocent mistake by a new staff member, which was rectified immediately upon discovery.

It is disturbing to note that the Cardinal Newman Society issued a press release of damaging and untrue accusations on March 16, without verifying its information with the College of St. Catherine, and a full day before contacting me. The Cardinal Newman Society informed me in a March 17 letter about the offending web link, but not about the press release that, in fact, had been issued the day before. Even more disturbing, the Cardinal Newman Society corrected information about St. Catherine’s on its own website on March 27, but failed to issue a clarifying press release.

Had the Register followed professional journalistic practices and verified with us the information gleaned from Cardinal Newman Society press release, we could have swiftly set the record straight.

Throughout the 100-plus-year history of the College of St. Catherine, we have remained true to our identity as a Catholic, liberal-arts college for women. Public assaults such as this only distract us from our mission. The publishing of this misinformation has caused great distress for our college community and our many friends. We would therefore, request the Register’s public acknowledgement of this miscommunication.

Andrea J. Lee, IHM

President, The College of St. Catherine

St. Paul, Minnesota

Scolding Mexico

Regarding “Bridging the Border” (May 14-20):

One thing that has been lacking in most of the coverage of the illegal-immigration issue has been the culpability of Mexico. Instead, the focus has been on America’s responsibility, on American legislation and bureaucracy. This is not just America’s problem!

What about the poor record of Mexico? What about that country’s responsibility to its own citizens, to provide an economy that will support their own people staying home?

Instead, we see a Mexican government and officials that have a dastardly record when it comes to illegal immigration into their own country. How dare they lecture us on the treatment of Mexican illegals in America! Why can’t they do better at providing for their own people, especially given the wealth of natural resources their country has been blessed with? When will they progress from the corruption that has sucked the life out of Mexico?

The short-term gain of millions of dollars being sent home from America from displaced citizens cannot substitute for real reform and prosperity at home for all.

Someone needs to mention this. This, too, should be part of the dialogue.

Jerome Ellard

Big Sandy, Texas

Emergency Contraception Aborts

I read with interest “Connecticut Drops Bill Forcing Rape-Victim Abortions on Catholics” (April 2-8), regarding the Connecticut Legislature’s attempt to force Catholic hospitals to dispense Plan B (a type of “emergency contraceptive” also called the morning-after-pill).

I can understand the motives behind the secular legislature’s attempt. However, I have a harder time understanding the indecision regarding the articulation of clear and unified policy on the part of the U.S. Catholic bishops.

In 2002, I — along with two other researchers, Drs. Joseph Stanford and Walter Larimore — published a comprehensive review article presenting the medical evidence in support of the view that emergency contraception is potentially abortive at times. This was published in the Archives of Pharmacotherapy in 2002 and the publisher graciously allowed us to post it in its entirely at the Polycarp Research Institute’s website (polycarp.org).

We concluded: “The available evidence for a postfertilization effect (abortive effect) is moderately strong, whether hormonal emergency contraception is used in the preovulatory, ovulatory, or postovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle.” In layman’s language this means that, because of emergency contraception’s long-term detrimental effect upon a woman’s endometrium, it has the potential to cause an early abortion whether given prior to, during or after ovulation.

Our article was later cited by the Catholic Medical Association, the largest group of Catholic doctors in the United States. That organization issued the following resolution at its 72nd annual meeting (10/17/03): “Therefore, be it further resolved that as ‘emergency contraception’ has the potential to prevent implantation whether given in the pre-ovulatory, ovulatory, or post-ovulatory phase, that it cannot be ethically employed by a Catholic physician or administered in a Catholic hospital in cases of rape.” Dr. Thomas Hilgers, the founder of the Pope Paul VI Institute, agrees with the CMA’s resolution.

In light of this evidence, the only reasonable conclusion is that Plan B and other emergency contraceptives cannot be given to rape victims without risking an abortive potential even if they are given prior to ovulation. Given this information and the strength of the endorsement of two nationally known Catholic medical organizations, is it not time that the U.S. bishops have the courage to lead by articulating a clear and unified national position on “emergency contraception” in regard to rape victims?

Chris Kahlenborn, MD

President, The Polycarp Research Institute

Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania

Fiction: Easily Faced Down

I just read Mark Shea’s commentary “Da Vinci Code vs. Left Behind.” Nowhere in his column did he mention that Dan Brown’s book is fiction. That’s all, just fiction.

I haven’t read the book; nor have I seen the movie yet. It’s on my list of movies to see, but so is Titanic and five of the six Star Wars movies.

 I think that the best defense we as Catholics and Christians can offer is to simply remind people that they bought the book in the fiction section, not history. Mr. Shea’s working seems to indicate otherwise.

Rick Reed

Jonesboro, Georgia

Dad’s Delusion a Child’s Confusion

Regarding “The Forgotten Voice in the Adoption Debate” (Inperson, May 7-13):

Thank you for taking the time to listen to, and report, the voices of children who live through [a parent’s] same-sex attraction.

I know Dawn Stefanowicz personally, as we have come to know each other thanks to a ministry leader who thought we shared a lot in common.

I have stepped forward with my dad’s cross-dressing when I was a child. He left our family years later to be a transsexual. I live here in the United States and closely watch laws and society changing in a negative way.

You took the time to let a child who grew up in a negative way speak out. For that, I send you a big “Thank You.” And I ask that you continue to do so, for the sake of children who are caught in the midst of homosexuality and transsexualism.

Name Withheld

Clarification

In “Still Slaying Dragons After All These Years” (May 21-27), we reported that Randall Terry is strategizing a run “for the Senate in Florida’s Eighth District.” He’s eyeing the Florida State Senate in Tallahassee, not the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C.