Baxter Fan

I thoroughly enjoyed Susan Baxter's reflection on “Why I No Longer Want What I Don't Have” (April 9-15). Her musings echo some of my own feelings and observations in the last year, but she expressed those thoughts so much better.

We often blind ourselves to the great blessings right in front of us by wanting more and more things. “Man when he prospers, forfeits intelligence” we are warned in Psalm 49. We Americans need reminders of this truth. Let's hear more from Susan Baxter.

Gary Gibson,

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Biased Reporting?

I am a recent subscriber who is aghast at the partial /slanted reporting that I have observed. One example is your attempt to portray the reporting on AIDS among Catholic priests (“AIDS Series Assaulted” Feb. 13-19) … a well-documented and tragic event that is made all the more tragic by your paper's efforts to deny the polling done by a non-objective [sic.] polling group.

To cover up this situation is to endanger these and other priests who need the counseling on sexuality so denied in their seminary training. You are depriving readers of the truth — keeping in mind that in the arena of free ideas, truth will out. Please be objective.

Bill Wellington,

Silver Spring, Maryland

Editor's Note: Our editorial on the Kansas City Star's priests-with-AIDS story called the situation “tragic” and looked at seminary training. The front page story looked at the training problem also. So did the week's Indepth feature and a March 12-18 follow-up story. At the same time, we did find it important to correct the record of a survey that even the Star acknowledges was insufficient.

Serra Slighted

Just thought that it should be noted that Father Junipero Serra is also an American Blessed.

The article (“Holy Man of New Orleans Newest U.S. Blessed” April 9-15) says that Father Seelos (whom I love) will be the second male … Father Serra beat him to it. Think it is worth noting in an upcoming edition as we do not have many to brag about.

Anthony Gavin

via e-mail

Editor's Note: Father Serra's Southwest mission territory was not officially a part of the United States at the time of the life. But perhaps he should still “count.”

Torturous Vaccine Analogy

You come up with an analogy that is both tortured and wrong when you compare the “good” of using vaccines made from aborted pre-birth children to the “good” that comes from adopting children conceived out of wedlock (“Vaccines and Abortions,” editorial, April 2-8). The “good” of adoption comes, at least in part, because it serves the wronged child. Using vaccines from the bodies of killed children in no way serves those wronged innocents, but makes us profit from their loss of life. Thus, the use of such vaccines wrongs those children twice!

If these vaccines were derived from, say, murdered kindergartners, would their use be less acceptable? Why?

Once upon a terrible time, people used lamp-shades and soap made from the bodies of butchered Jewish children. The consumers of these products may have been removed from the actual murders by many years, but we would think of them as ghouls if they knowingly accepted these products. Would our opinion of them be different if those products had included vaccines?

Patricia Sette

Concord, Massachusetts

Pope Saint Pius XII?

Father Peter Gumpel, SJ, who is preparing the beatification cause of Pope Pius XII, is certainly correct in calling the CBS “60 Minutes” program on Pius XII “dishonest journalism” (“Jesuit Calls ‘60 Minutes’ Spin ‘Dishonest Journalism’,” April 2-8). Father said the program ignored his “precise and documented refutations” of Pope Pius XII's detractors.

It was obvious to anyone who has a passing familiarity with all Pius XII said and did on behalf of the Jews, and watched the program, that they were smearing Pius XII. At one point they did come near to the truth. Ed Bradley, the CBS reporter, asked the leader of a Jewish organization: If the Pope failed the Jews or was antiSemitic, then why did they praise him at the end of the war? “All politics,” was the Jewish leader's reply.

Those in the media who wish to discredit Pius XII are now saying, falsely, that Pius XII was silent when the Nazis were practicing genocide against Jews and his silence implied at best weakness or indifference and possibly antiSemitism. They continue saying that they have to find out what he did during the war and, to do that, the Vatican must open its archives of the period and there is no way he should be made a saint until they inspect the archives.

Catholics must reject the idea Pius XII was silent and become familiar with the many times he spoke on behalf of the Jews Karl Keating wrote an excellent Register column on what he did for Jews (“Jewish Group Warms to Pius XII,” March 26-April 1). There are many good books on the subject which show that Pius XII was a hero to contemporary Jews and they acknowledged his help after the war and on his death in 1958. Members of the media should study a little history on the era.

Catholics should reject out-of-hand the idea that the Vatican is trying to hide records from the media. The Vatican has already opened archives to scholars (Register, “Catholic and Jewish Scholars Will Study Vatican Archives,” Dec. 12–18, 1999).

Catholics should reject the idea that we need journalists to tell us who our saints are. While the Church labors mightily through proponents’ and opponents’ (devil's advocates) arguments about the candidate. God through his miracles has the final say on who achieves sainthood.

John Naughton

Silver Spring, Maryland

Indulging in the Jubilee Indulgence

Karen Walker's “Five Steps to Gain Your Indulgence” (March 26-April 1) is not as comprehensive and accurate as one would like.

She does not clearly state what “true conversion of heart” is needed for a plenary indulgence. If the least attachment to the least venial sin still remains in our hearts, no full remission of the temporal punishment is gained, simply because we are still guilty of that sin; we are still consenting to it in some measure, however small.

“What could be more fruitful … than gaining one or more Jubilee indulgences?” she asks. The answer is, any good work we do, most especially receiving any of the sacraments, preeminently the Eucharist. Why? Because we can grow in sanctifying grace (our everlasting sharing in God's Trinitarian life) if we are free of mortal sin even if we are still committing fully deliberate venial sin (hazardous as this can be to our state of grace and our relationship with God) or if we have not totally repented of every least sin. It is easier to grow in sanctifying grace than to gain a plenary indulgence!

Remission of temporal punishment (an indulgence) is just a temporal gain. Sanctifying grace is forever, unless we ourselves deliberately choose to turn away from God by mortal sin during the days of our earthly life. In heaven, of course, we will be so overpowered by the presence of God that we will no longer be free to turn from him. In this life we find the attraction of sin more overpowering than the love of God.

Rev. Vincent Hogan

Fort Scott, Kansas