Memories Rekindled

Regarding “Racial Divide in the US Revisited” (In Person interview, Sept. 6 issue): As a young teenager, I lived down South, during the days of Jim Crow. Failure to give any human being the dignity due to a child of God is both wrong and heartbreaking. Without forgiveness, anyone, irrespective of color, can be destroyed. Without forgiveness, we tend to live in the present as if the past were true.

Having worked with all socioeconomic conditions of students, I know that God has no favored race. People come in all kinds of packages. Most students do not know something simply because they have not been exposed to this or that information or knowledge.

In the early ’70s, I taught in an all-black school in inner-city Milwaukee. There seemed to be a unique seating arrangement for lunch: The main table seemed to attract the black teachers. White teachers and student teachers, along with substitute teachers, seemed to be attracted to two side tables, respectively.

Noting this lack of integration, I decided to sit at a different table each day. Two things became apparent: First, no one from any of the tables ever seemed to reject me. Second, no one seemed to want to leave their comfort zones.

My dad, who was in marketing sales, used to stress, “Listen to your customers” (an invaluable lesson for a teacher). While sitting at the table where the teacher aides and substitutes were eating, one of the new aides shared with me one of her observations: “Looking around my community, I noticed those who were succeeding were going to church. So I decided that was where I needed to go.”

People are people. Slavery was wrong because it denied the dignity of the human person, not because the slaves were largely black. All slavery, including that of today, is wrong because it denies the dignity of the human person.

As I see it today: The battle is deeply spiritual. None of us, irrespective of our racial or ethnic roots, must live in the present as if the injustices of the past are true. Only God — only the churches — can give us the insight and the courage to rise above injustice, through forgiveness, mercy and reconciliation. The “cry of the streets” must turn to the cry to God to have mercy on all of us.

         H. Ann Kowalczyk

         Waukesha, Wisconsin

 

Shepherd’s Balm

Pertinent to “Did Thomas More and John Fisher Die for Nothing?” by Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila (Oct. 19, NCRegister.com):

Thank you for the very beautiful article that articulates the truth about Catholic teaching on marriage, the faith of saints and martyrs and discipleship.

My heart was broken and life shattered when my husband of 28 years — with whom I have five beautiful children (now adult) and now, also, several grandchildren — divorced me. He is living with a woman he met in a bar, and our marriage is not annulled. The pain I live with is beyond imagination.

He and this woman are welcomed by his Catholic family and friends. Help me understand this. This scandal is so grave, yet my children love their father and maintain a relationship with him, as they should. I have witnessed him receiving holy Communion at the baptism of one of our grandchildren. Help! I have often thought Sts. Thomas More, John Fisher and John the Baptist are overlooked as patrons for our times and the suffering members of our Church like myself. Thanks and prayers for the archbishop for such clarity and balm.

         Donna Canovali

         Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

 

Conscience Advice

In the conscience commentary of your issue of Nov. 1, “Propagating the Error of the Primacy of Conscience” (Vatican), which I fully support, the author forgot to mention the advice of the first theologian: “Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

A conscience operating under this interpretation will never lead up to heaven, which is the only thing that can make a person happy. Holy Scripture is not stupid.

         Raul Alessandri, M.D.

         Davidsonville, Maryland

 

Annulment Clarification

Regarding “Annulment Reform: 6 Misconceptions and 6 Developments” (In Depth, Sept. 20 issue): One major related misconception I’ve not seen clarified in any publication — religious or secular, nor heard it spoken of in news programs (not even EWTN’s The World Over Live, unless I missed it) — is a major reason why I’ve heard people say they don’t file for an annulment.

The misconception: “Some Catholics feel that children born during the marriage they are trying to annul will then be considered illegitimate.” This is silly, since a Catholic Church annulment is a process totally unrelated to civil/state marriage laws. An annulment in the Catholic Church means the marriage has been declared “non”-sacramental — therefore, not valid in the eyes of the Church (my understanding).

Maybe the title of the process needs to be changed from “annulment” to something else.

Please get a message to the Pope to clarify this particular misconception — seriously (if I had his address, I would write him myself); it’s best coming from him. An article in the Register would also help; maybe a mention by Raymond Arroyo on The World Over Live, as well. Get this misconception clarified — let Catholics know this isn’t true.

Thank God, I won my annulment after three years. I’m a conservative Catholic and am thrilled the Pope has had the process re-evaluated and offers a shorter resolution.

         Jan Miller

         Pleasanton, California

 

Clamoring for Clarity

We are confused. We Catholics need a clear, unambiguous answer given by the Holy Father, especially after the synod takes place. The answer concerns a fundamental question, not one that is simplistic or one that makes us Pharisees. It responds to a vital need concerning the survival of our children. We pray for a clear, strong statement from the Holy Father about the sinfulness of extramarital sex (premarital, adulterous and homosexual), a statement from the Pope that leaves no room for misinterpretation, either by subscribers of The Advocate magazine, for example, or by good Catholic parents who desperately need the backing of our Holy Father.

Given the present deterioration of sexual decency, we need a statement that is not only clear, but that establishes today’s priority of sexual morality. Sexual morality is the foundation upon which other social institutions are built and upon which they depend. Without sexual morality, marriages crumble; when marriages crumble, families do as well; when families crumble, so does the Church and most everything else in society — a domino effect resulting in all kinds of poverty, material poverty included. Because of this domino effect of sexual immorality, we also pray that not only sexual decency, but also its priority among our other needs, is recognized, free from any ideology other than the Gospel.

         M.C. Miranda

         S.W. Ranches, Florida

 

This Is Not Democracy

How pleased I was to see the Register article “As Synod Approaches, Nigerian Bishops Speak Up for the Family” (NCRegister.com, Sept. 29).

May God continue to bless the voice of our Nigerian bishops.

There is a hidden war on the fundamental purpose of women. Homosexual males invaded fundamental women’s territory when they decided to usurp a-man-and-a-woman marriage. Our nation’s judicial branch arrogantly claims gender doesn’t matter — denigrating women who have replenished every society, providing the world’s workforce since “the beginning.”

God created women. The U.S. Supreme Court created feminists — expediting the court’s control over procreation — and population control, through “its” laws that govern abortion and contraception and by integrating women into every male area to neutralize the female gender.

The court declares unconstitutional every state and voter attempt to abolish or diminish abortion. It wrote the law, and it enforces the law — a control that is not democracy.

To facilitate same-sex “marriage,” the court usurped the unique woman’s position as spouse alongside a man in fundamental marriage — usurped her “wife and mother” identities. The judiciary gave homosexual males a right to children she produces through adoption.

Even normally loyal husbands have caved in to the coercion of “homophobia” accusations. Only some religions — Catholicism in particular — protect women’s rights. The nation is persecuting Kim Davis for refusing — whether she realizes it or not — to sign away the unique woman’s right in unique marriage. Man is unique, and woman is unique, which makes their marriage unique. There are no equals or equivalents.

Homosexual sodomy mocks women in the act of procreation. Homosexual males imitate women in same-sex marriage, but they refuse to marry women.

Marriage provides a normal facade; but anyone with common sense must realize that “imitating heterosexuals in marriage” is not the ultimate homosexual goal.

         Ruth Ruhl-LaMusga

         Chico, California