Teresian Tenderness

Thank you for publishing the “In Depth” explanation of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta’s dark night of the soul (“The ‘Atheism’ of Mother Teresa of Calcutta,” Sep. 9).

True, the “dark night” is a concept that is not easily understood, but Father Cantalamessa is to be commended for explaining what it was and what it was not. For 50 years Blessed Teresa lived out her faith in darkness, without the consolations others have.

I was privileged to be in Italy in the early 1980s, acting in the Italian film Quattro Ragazzi (Four Boys). I got to spend several days with Blessed Teresa in Rome, helping her and her sisters open a new house.

In time I went from awe to a feeling she was just like my grandmother. This great woman, each day as I departed, would ask me if I had money for the bus. She thought of everyone and everything.

George Grandfield

Boston, Massachusetts

Quality Before Quantity

I write in response to “Emphasize Daily Mass,” the letter to the editor regarding daily Mass attendance by Catholic school children (Sept. 2).

Starting in 1954, I attended Catholic schools from kindergarten through graduate school — and never encountered the practice of daily Mass attendance until I worked in Catholic education in the West. I subsequently discovered that this practice also seemed to be in place in the Midwest.

Why not in the Northeast? My guess is that schools and parishes west of Pennsylvania were generally smaller, with many parishes being served by only one priest. The sisters who staffed the schools obviously needed daily Mass, either before the school day or during the school day. In other words, the rationale was more practical than anything else.

Am I opposed to daily Mass for school children? Not particularly. Nor am I enthusiastically committed to it. I think good cases can be made on both sides of the discussion. My own unscientific research suggests that most Catholic elementary schools have class Masses once a week and then a student body Mass either once a week or First Fridays. Most high schools with a fulltime priest appear to have a daily Mass available sometime during the school day, class Masses according to a rotation system, and all-school Masses for holy days of obligation and other special occasions.

The critical issue is not whether or not Catholic schools provide mandatory daily Mass. It is that, when Holy Mass is celebrated, it is done with dignity, decorum and solemnity. Students who have a true experience of the transcendent, thanks to the quality of the liturgy, will want to take part in the Sacred Mysteries whenever and wherever possible.

Frankly, I am far more concerned about getting Catholic-school students to Sunday Mass than to daily Mass. Given the horrific Sunday attendance of their parents, it is very difficult to ensure the attendance of this generation. That is why priests and educators must work together to stress the centrality of Sunday Mass in Catholic life and to bolster that teaching with every means at our disposal, including making such attendance a condition for maintenance in a Catholic school.

After all, everything we do in the school is intended to lead the student to the altar and, ultimately, to Heaven. If that is not happening, the entire Catholic educational process is short-circuited and even aborted.

Father Peter M.J. Stravinskas

Editor, The Catholic Response
Mt. Pocono, Pennsylvania

Wing It Middle-Eastward

“Vatican-Approved Airline Begins Pilgrim Flights” mentions holy sites like Fatima, Guadalupe and Lourdes — and nothing about those in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt (Vatican Media Watch, Aug. 26).

Does anyone know of a way to ask the Vatican pilgrimage office if plans to go to where Christianity began are up in the air? (Pun intended.)

It would give Arab Christians a big boost financially and spiritually to learn their sisters and brothers from the West are coming on eagles’ wings — courtesy of the Vatican.

Samear Badih Anis Zaitoon

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Polygamy and Women

“Now Polygamy” raises some serious issues not just for Canadians but all North Americans (Sep. 2).

Certainly, former Canadian Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler was wrong in thinking legalization of same-sex “marriage” would not impact on the legality of polygamy. That said, Canadian constitutional rights to freedom of religion are limited. Merely calling something a religious practice does not make it immune from legislation. Child sacrifice, for example, is a historical religious practice that would find no sanction in Canadian law.

Polygamy too, would likely not be seen as justifiable by Canadian courts as a constitutionally protected practice. The harms of polygamy, especially to women, are far more obvious than the more subtle concerns raised by other nontraditional unions.

Regardless, Canada’s (Conservative) federal government could, as it deemed appropriate, render polygamy illegal regardless of any court decision supporting polygamy. How? By saying polygamy remains illegal notwithstanding the application of constitutional law.

None of this detracts from the important concerns raised by your article, but the chances of legalized polygamy in Canada remain low.

James Morton

Toronto, Ontario

Polygamy Promotion?

Respectfully, I do not believe you used good judgment in publishing a photograph of the polygamist with his six wives in your newspaper so cheerfully together, as we know polygamy is a grave sin and a distortion of marriage “Now Polygamy” (Sept. 2). It is enough to say there is a polygamist union and mention names if already publicly known.

You also published the polygamist man with his attorney. It would have been better to publish the photographs of the people who are fighting this horror.

Otherwise, your weekly newspaper is basically sound and informative, and we are grateful for your hard work.

Marlene Gillette

Watkinsville, Georgia

Angry Accusers

Regarding Mark Shea’s Sep. 2 column, “Fake Questions”:

Amen, brother! I feel so sorry, and therefore need to fast and pray, for my Protestant friends who are constantly trying to justify their beliefs on unsupportable Bible-only positions. Once you successfully deflect their initial charges, they start getting angry and say things like, “Well, what about Galileo or the Inquisition?”

Of course, those arguments are easily addressed as well, but many accusers quickly resort to centuries-old thoughts about the Catholic Church and don’t seem interested in finding out the truth of our faith.

Thanks for substantiating my experiences.

Timothy O’Neil
Crownsville, Maryland

Scandinavian Pride

I was very happy to read the “In Person” interview with Viggo Rambusch, designer of the 9/11 memorial (“American Heroes,” Sept.9). I only wish the Register could have included a photo of the memorial instead of showing the former World Trade Center towers.

My own knowledge of Mr. Rambusch is in another sphere, however: Along with his family he has for many years been associated with the administration of St. Ansgar’s Scandanavian Catholic League, which publishes an annual journal, St. Ansgar’s Bulletin, as well as donating office space for the journal’s operations in New York City. I have subscribed to St. Ansgar’s Bulletin for many years, originally to get closer to my Norwegian heritage, but now to support in some small way the mission churches within this vast area stretching from Greenland to Estonia.

Amy Wagner

Arvada, Colorado

Unsurprising Results

The Sept. 9 letter to the editor titled “Surprising Remarks,” criticizing the Pope’s remarks, omits the moral and ethical basis for just wars and killing in self-defense.

Both concepts are necessarily predicated upon the ethical principle of “double effect,” which permits defensive (not pre-emptive) war — if, and only if, the good that is sought is not outweighed by the evil that accompanies it.

The Iraq War preemption could have been considered defensive only if Saddam Hussein was about to attack us with weapons of mass destruction. He was not in any position to do so, as we were informed by U.N. inspectors before the war and discovered for ourselves after invading Iraq.

While some continue to argue that the current stalemate in Iraq justifies the untold number of lives lost and injuries sustained there, apparently the current Pope and his predecessor do not and did not see it that way.

Nor do the majority of the American people who apply the appropriate “just war” moral analysis in saying: End it now.

John F. O’Connell

New Providence, New Jersey

Multimedia Moment

Thank you to EWTN for inviting Father Owen Kearns, publisher and editor in chief of the National Catholic Register, to tell about this publication. After watching the interview by Father Mitch Pacwa on “EWTN Live” Sept. 5, I entered my subscription and am looking forward to receiving my first copy.

Brian Stevens

Willoughby, Ohio

Correction

In our Sept. 16-22 issue, we included a letter about Father Nicolas Gruner and an editor’s note warning that “America Needs Fatima” was an initiative of the priest who has been suspended by the Vatican. Our warning was incorrect, and should not have attributed “America Needs Fatima” to Gruner. The Register regrets the error.