Have You Watched The Passion This Year?

With the The Da Vinci Code getting all the press lately, it is easy to forget that we were recently blessed with an excellent movie that depicts our Catholic faith in a powerfully truthful way: The Passion of the Christ.

When it first came out, many of us were anxious to see it do well at the box office, so we waited in line and watched one of the most amazing movies of all time. Some of us saw it again and again. Even secular newspapers couldn’t deny its impact and reported stories of conversions and confessions from people who saw this powerful depiction of Christ’s saving death on the cross.

Then it came out on video/DVD and many of us bought it. We made it one of the biggest-selling videos of the year. We watched it again when we brought it home and cried in the privacy of our own homes.

And now? If you haven’t yet watched it this Lent, make the time to do so for Easter. Dust off your copy, or rent or buy it. Take the time to see this Stations of the Cross in living, breathing color and let yourself be placed at the foot of the cross with Mary.

Just one tip: If you haven’t seen it yet, the movie doesn’t end at the foot of the cross. Keep watching for the best ending in the world!

Rachel Watkins

Elkton, Maryland

Legislating Good Behavior

Contrary to the views expressed in the letter to the editor titled “Illusory Hope” (March 12-18), reversing Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton can help end abortion.

Laws banning abortion can force good behavior on pain of going to jail and thus save innocent lives. But converting all of society to the belief that human life is sacred is another matter. To accomplish that, as the letter-writer states, society must turn away from secular relativism.

To paraphrase the remarks of Father Tad Pacholczyk, a Catholic bioethicist, all laws impose somebody’s morality on somebody else. Good ones promote justice for society and all its members. Societal laws can force good behavior, but only openness to God’s grace can transform the heart. That can take years.

Consider how long African-Americans fought for equality after the Civil War emancipated them. Generations passed before societal laws succeeded in forcing unwilling citizens to help them gain a foothold in the “American dream.” And some racial prejudice still exists today because we haven’t fully internalized God’s laws

So it is with abortion. Forty-eight million innocent lives have been sacrificed since the ruling on Roe 33 years ago. But things are changing. Since 2000, 195 state abortion restrictions have circumvented Roe, saving tens of thousands of babies. Post-abortive parents are publicly decrying abortion’s evil. More and more young people are speaking out for life, and the number of pregnancy-aid organizations is growing.

Conversion to God’s laws is the only sure way to protect the sanctity of human life. In the meantime, societal laws can save lives.

Annemarie S. Muth

Bluffton, Indiana

Friendly Defender

In her story dealing with the debate over Boston Catholic Charities’ adoption policy, your correspondent Gail Besse reported that “biased press coverage, especially in Boston, has dumbed down the issue” (“Church Reasoning Ignored in Adoption Debate,” March 26-April 1).

While I’m sure that that was a largely accurate assessment, in fairness to the Boston press, at least, it would have helped had she mentioned statements made by Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby — a non-Catholic who, in his columns of March 6 and March 16, was outspoken in his defense, not only of Catholic Charities, but also of the basic Catholic principles underlying the agency’s decision to drop its adoption services.

Bill Loughlin

Glendale, California

Jesus’ Genes

Our Catholic faith tells us that Jesus Christ is true God and true man, “a man like us in all things but sin.” In the Incarnation the divine nature, the Word of God, was joined to a fully human nature (except for the human personality) in the womb of Mary.

Once Jesus was born, should geneticists have examined one of his somatic cells, they would have found 46 chromosomes in its nucleus. Of these, the two sex chromosomes would have been an X and Y, since he has the human nature of a male.

All of Mary’s somatic cells contained two X chromosomes, and her sex cells contained only 23 chromosomes. Where did the Y chromosome come from in Jesus? And where did the other 22 come from?

This, I submit, is part of the miracle: Mary’s ovum supplied the maternal 23 chromosomes containing an X (as does every mother); the Holy Spirit overshadowing her created the other 23, which included the Y.

So it seems there is an error in the essay “The Biology of the Annunciation” (Commentary & Opinion, March 19-25), which stated that Jesus’ genetic make-up was “100% Mary’s.” Rather, it was/is 50% Mary’s and 50% the creation of the Holy Spirit.

If all Jesus’ genes had come from Mary, Jesus would have been a female — and a clone of Mary.

Father David Wechter

Hermits of Mary of Carmel

Houston, Minnesota

Death by Drugstore

Relevant to “Connecticut Drops Bill Forcing Rape-Victim Abortions on Catholics” (April 2-8):

The “morning-after” pill is not a medication. It is a drug. A drug that has no curative powers. It is a kill pill. It is a lethal weapon used to empty out the contents of a mother’s uterus if she is with child.

Pregnancy is not a disease; it is a voluntary condition of life. A mother is not a patient undergoing a wellness treatment. Making love makes babies, but love sickness is not an illness.

I can appreciate the untenable position of the pharmacists who have been put on leave from Walgreen’s for refusing to betray their religiously held beliefs, while practicing good health measures. Truth demands honesty of words as well as actions. If the pharmacists do not place before the public reasonable and very precise explanations for their actions, they will be burdened with this conflict forever. Further, they do the public harm by not using correct terminology.

All products sold must meet the criteria of truth in advertising. Let the buyer beware is indefensible. In criminal law, the person who fences the stolen merchandise is also guilty. Selling a person a gun knowing they are going to do harm to themselves and/or others is cooperation. Qui tacet consentire: Silence gives consent.

In A Man for All Seasons, Thomas More, offers this defense at his own trial: “Is it my place to say ‘good’ to the state’s sickness? Can I help my king by giving him lies when he asks for truth? Will you help England by populating her with liars?”

If pharmacists sell the abortifacient drug as medication and refer to pregnancy as an illness and the mother as a patient, they advance a big lie.

Joan Solms

Aurora, Illinois

Rough Waters Ahead

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput and the Catholics of Colorado are challenging one of many hypocrisies of our present days and state of affairs (“Archbishop: Don’t Neglect Secular Abuse,” March 12-18).

One cannot [help but] notice that the case of Colorado legislation is driven by anti-religious and anti-Catholic sentiment.

Yes, some people of our Catholic Church got into trouble, not by following Scripture and the Catechism, or by listening to the guidance of our popes, but because they conveniently forgot (disregarded?) the teachings about homosexuality and many other kinds of sexual promiscuity.

But let’s look at the world. We could start with our former president. He was sexually exploiting a young assistant in an adulterous relationship. Any other director of any organization would have been fired or forced to resign.

Our troops in Iraq were sexually abusing prisoners of war. If anybody did this to our POWs, that would be called hideous, barbaric acts in our “civilized eyes.”

An article in our local newspaper reported that another two women have died after using the abortion pill RU-486 provided by Planned Parenthood, which “disregarded the approved instruction for the pill’s use.” Why is Planned Parenthood not being sued for negligence and the ultimate form of abuse — murder?

Can we count on the American Civil Liberties Union to defend these and other cases of differential treatment? I doubt it.

We are sailing in rough waters, but if we have faith, we remember that Jesus will be with us till the last day. We need not be afraid or ashamed.

Jiri Heger
Billings, Montana

Closed Adoption Corrodes

The scandal of the state giving children to homosexuals through adoption illustrates the dangers of closed-records adoption (“In Adoptions, Rome Sides With Kids,” March 19-25).

In closed-records adoption, the natural parents have no say in the child’s welfare. Indeed, they have no knowledge of what happens to the child. This has led to adoption agencies not only giving children to homosexuals, but also to children with at least one Catholic parent being given to non-Catholics. The Church has always insisted that children born in mixed marriages be raised Catholic.

Further, closed-records adoption has enabled adoption agencies to give children to fallen-away Catholics who claim to be Catholic, but reject fundamental Church teachings on such issues as abortion, contraception and the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

These abuses would have been much less common in open-records adoption because the natural parents have control over who gets to adopt their children.

Joseph V. Simon

Richland Center, Wisconsin