Truly Miraculous

I read the article by Tom Greany in the Jan. 16 issue (“Our Lady of Hope: Mary Remained,” Nation), which described the loss of their home and possessions in the recent Colorado fires. Among the debris stood the Greanys’ statue of the Blessed Mother. The Greanys’ new, metal front door was melted into a twisted ball. 

I found similar debris following an apartment fire 35 years ago. Most of my jewelry was melted and looked like dental fillings attached to the bedroom floor. While going through the debris in the bedroom, my sister found a little plastic box welded closed by the fire. When she handed it to me, I recognized it as the box that held my Miraculous Medal. The box’s velvet covering was gone, and ashes flaked from the outside of the box.

I found something to pry open the box. Inside was my beautiful Miraculous Medal — with no trace of soot or ashes. 

From that day forward, I have called this my “Truly Miraculous Medal.”

As the Greanys and I learned, Our Lady stays with us during our trials and helps us to find peace and hope.

 JoAnn Paslawsky

 Tamaqua, Pennsylvania

 

Wages of Sin

As the showdown looms for Roe v. Wade, I believe this needs to be said.

When those who favor abortion speak of an “unwanted child,” one is forced to ask, “Unwanted by whom? Who decides if this child is unwanted? And if someone acts on this belief, doesn’t he or she become the executioner? Didn’t the Nazis begin by exterminating the “unwanted”?

One wonders how God looks at this, along with euthanasia, same-sex “marriage” and so-called transgender rights. Who suspected, in years past, that one of the planks of the Democratic Party would be the right to abortion? Did we ever think we would see the day when several Protestant denominations would be okay with abortion and not only sanction but perform same-sex “marriages,” tossing out doctrine in place since the very founding of Christianity? (The Catholic Church, so named in the 100s, has condemned abortion from its very beginning, as have all the popes down through the ages. Should we believe that Roe v. Wade somehow trumps this?) Do those who turn to the Constitution for support really believe that the authors of this document had abortion, same-sex “marriage,” the “LGBT” movement, et al., in mind? I believe our problems began, little by little, by turning away from our religious precepts and what followed, the numbing of our collective conscience, which inexorably leads to sin. Perhaps apropos here is a warning from the Book of Wisdom (11:16): “They might learn that one is punished by the very things by which he sins.” 

Does more sin lead to more unrest and disorder? I believe we are finding out. 

 Jack Wolock

 Worthington, Ohio

 

Editor’s Note: “Around the year 107, a bishop, St. Ignatius of Antioch in the Near East, was arrested, brought to Rome by armed guards and eventually martyred there in the arena. In a farewell letter which this early bishop and martyr wrote to his fellow Christians in Smyrna (today Izmir in modern Turkey), he made the first written mention in history of ‘the Catholic Church,’” according to an article on EWTN.com, and other sources.

 

COVID and Social Media

Relative to the Register’s interview with Dr. Aaron Kheriaty (Jan. 30 issue):

The interviewer asked, “Why are questions about vaccine efficacy and mandates often so controversial? You want to say to public-health officials, ‘Treat us like grown-ups.’” My response: If you want to be treated like a grown-up, then act like one and admit that the polarization that Kheriaty rightly pinpoints in his answer started before COVID, with the unfortunate emergence of social media. Sensationalized health articles, meant to publicize scary ideas to the more gullible and less learned, make them feel like geniuses (although they are not board-certified in anything). 

The amount of misinformation so oft-quoted is a crime that needs to be dealt with severely. For those who have studied the science of infection control, or even dedicated their lives to it, the amount of misinformation is nauseating. People do not choose trusted sources for information and think they know more than persons who have written five-inch-deep textbooks on the subject. 

COVID vaccines greatly changed the trajectory of this pandemic, and I think no person would want to go back to the pre-vaccine pandemic.

Joan T. Murtaugh

Palos Hills, Illinois