Letters 08.04.19
Readers respond to Register articles.
Poem for France
Regarding “France’s Wounded Soul” (page one, April 28 issue), a poem:
Even those who think
outside the box,
who know that God’ s house
is no temple built
by human hands, no cloister kept by
a fond forsaken dream
that the teeming sheering crowd
consigns to the silenced minority,
even these — the faithful
to the Tireless Promise —
as enshrined the larger of
a whole millennial age
on the Seine’s ancient shore,
who, seeing this sacred archives,
this salvation history reserves
smoke like holy incense rise,
even these, though earth-freed,
meld withal their heart-rent prayers.
Yet loyalists’ hearts bitter-sweetly
celebrate the shock-wave sweep,
the swollen rebel race joined in
sad remembrance of
their shared heritage
gone up in flame,
as if France herself
burned at the stake.
Dennis Johns
Napa, California
Right to Discriminate?
Regarding “Gender-Identity Protections Good for the Economy, Companies Tell SCOTUS” (NCResister.com, July 3): The article ab-stract states, “The question before the court will be whether protections against sex discrimination in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also include discrimination on basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, or discrimination against transgender people.” What we really need to know is whether it is right to discriminate against people on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and also whether it is right to discriminate against people simply because they are transgender. If either or both is right, why?
Julie Robichaud
San Antonio, Texas
Homes of Faithful Souls
In gratitude for your coverage of our faith life.
Regarding “France’s Other Burning Churches” (May 12 issue, In Depth): It is foolish to concern yourself so much about the church buildings. They are but the homes of the faithful souls. Are the faithful souls present? When we get the individual souls filled with faith, when the Church signifies it will be present in their everyday lives, then people will be seen overflowing into the church buildings.
Mary Patricia Meehan
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Release the Documents
A rank example of clericalism’s hold on Church culture is the Vatican’s refusal to honor the request by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, for files of Theodore Edgar McCarrick.
Cardinal DiNardo, of all clerics in authority, needs the McCarrick files to ascertain with certainty the true deviousness and means employed by him to cover his tracks during a 60-year-long priesthood. Cardinal DiNardo cannot do his work successfully when he is kept in the dark.
Declassify the classified. And wrap this scandal up in a satisfactory manner.
Chris Kirchhoff
Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania
Partly Right, Partly Wrong
Father Raymond de Souza’s analysis of the open letter accusing the Pope of heresy is partly right and partly wrong. It is right in commenting that Pope Francis’ statements are often vague, self-contradictory and sometimes even meaningless. But the open letter is, as Father De Souza rightly states, an exercise in exaggeration when it accuses Pope Francis of heresy. What Pope Francis is really guilty of is a gross failure to observe both his episcopal ordination vows to teach and guard the faith, to chase away heresy and to carry out his papal office of confirming the brethren in the faith and guarding and preserving the unity in the truth of Christ in the universal Church. What Pope Francis is arguably guilty of is dereliction of episcopal and papal duty by violating his ordination vows, a very serious charge under, at the very least, Canon 386.
Hampton Scott Tonk
North Fort Myers, Florida
Spiritual Fatherhood
I appreciated the analysis by Father Roger Landry that the clergy abuse scandal needs an emphasis on the “spiritual fatherhood” of priests (“Renewing Spiritual Fatherhood,” part of the Register symposium “Abuse and the Way to Healing,” Feb. 17 issue). A spiritual father not only provides life-giving sacraments, but sees himself as a mentor and protector. Sadly, there is a crisis of fatherhood, both the spiritual and biological realms. Thanks, Father!
Rob Legge
Belfair, Washington
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