LETTERS
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Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
LETTERS
February 2003
WHY DO YOU PRINT SUCH TRASH?
You advise in your publication that you will "not hide what is negative in the Church." However, in a recent edition, you have allowed an advertisement by "THE TRUTH" (the Rev. John Clarke) to pose the question, "why is the discredited Medjugorje hoax still attracting gullible apparition chasers?" Which poses three questions from me: 1) who said Medjugorje is a hoax? 2 who says the pilgrims to Medjugorje are gullible? 3) Why do you print such complete, utter, anti-Catholic nonsense couched in ambiguous, conflicting rhetoric?
Regarding Medjugorje being a "hoax": "THE TRUTH" ad states that "no statement from Pope John Paul II is necessary, the position of the church has been established and remains firm." What a piece of nonsensical claptrap! The statement was supposedly verbally confirmed to a California businessman named Kronzer. So all we millions of Catholics in Never-Never Land are going to bring an abrupt about-face on Medjugorje, pull up our socks and listen to a mysterious pie-in-the-sky Californian named Kronzer? Who was it said there was one born every minute? And the pope? Poor, old John Paul, head of the two thousand-year-old Apostolic Church, does not have to be consulted?
Who says the pilgrims are gullible? Anti-Catholic propaganda will consistently run down, tread upon, anything that is remotely Catholic. There is no positive proof behind this statement, no factual evidence has been produced; it is just an out-and-out inflammatory piece of pure hogwash, printed by a sensationalist seeking phoney notoriety, even quoting a Belgian newspaper by a person named Waterinckx. I think to quote the Rev. John Clarke, he is the one "barking like a dog."
And you, Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, presumably wish credulity to your publication, advertising that you wish to "foster and spread Catholic culture," and then you allow the printing of this utter trash! Talk about ambivalence!
Furthermore, "THE TRUTH" fatuously ascribes Matthew's "beware of false prophets" to Medjugorje. I think the shoe is on the other foot, that of the Rev. Clarke, who should remember that in its infancy, the Catholic Church wrote the New Testament and it is she, from Rome, who will clarify meaning, not a befuddled priest with the initials BS after his name.
My dear Mr. Zehnder, are you sure you are Catholic?
Peter S. Sale,
Paradise
Editor's reply: The answers to your three questions are as follows: 1 Father Clarke; 2) Father Clarke; 3) because Father Clarke's opinions are within the bounds of orthodoxy, though the tone he adopts may be strident. And, we happen to agree with him. You see, one may be a Catholic and think the Medjugorje apparitions an utter hoax, or he may think them valid, or he may simply be unsure about their validity. If the Mission or Father Clark express our negative opinion of the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje, it does not follow that we require anyone to accept our opinion.
I append a passage from a letter written May 26, 1998, by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith to the bishop of Saint-Denis de la Reunion, concerning the Holy See's position regarding Medjugorje. (The entire letter may be read on the EWTN website at: http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFAUBRY.HTM)
"Excellency. The main thing I would like to point out is that the Holy See does not ordinarily take a position of its own regarding supposed supernatural phenomena as a court of first instance. As for the credibility of the 'apparitions' in question, this Dicastery respects what was decided by the bishops of the former Yugoslavia in the Declaration of Zadar, April 10, 1991: 'On the basis of the investigations so far, it can not be affirmed that one is dealing with supernatural apparitions and revelations.' Since the division of Yugoslavia into different independent nations it would now pertain to the members of the Episcopal Conference of Bosnia-Hercegovina to eventually reopen the examination of this case, and to make any new pronouncements that might be called for..
"Finally, as regards pilgrimages to Medjugorje, which are conducted privately, this Congregation points out that they are permitted on condition that they are not regarded as an authentification of events still taking place and which still call for an examination by the Church."
YOUR PAPER IS OFFENSIVE
Please remove my name from your mailing list. I never requested your paper, Mission. As a matter of fact, I find it offensive, particularly your articles against Medjugorje.
In these sinful times we live in, it seems a truly Catholic paper will be calling for prayers, daily Mass, perpetual adoration, the rosary, for repentance and conversion -- something we all need to do!
Pat Foster,
Ontario
THE BENEFIT OF LAWSUITS
It would not surprise me if the assets of the Catholic Church in California evaporated in a plethora of lawsuits. Be not deceived, God is not mocked; as a man sows, so shall he reap.
The California Catholic bishops have complained about the California law extending the statute of limitations for cases on the sexual abuse of minors; but the bishops never objected to the 1999 California law that required the Catholic Church, along with all California employers, to pay for prescription contraceptives through employee health plans that have prescription coverage. First things first: by objecting to one thing and not another, the Catholic bishops as a body send a clear message about their priorities. The millions they might have to pay because of the child abuse lawsuits obviously concerns the California bishops. The immorality of the Catholic Church financing contraception obviously concerns them considerably less since they have never once publicly addressed that issue as a body.
Speaking as a church-going and, up until recently, tithing Catholic: less money to throw around might have a beneficial effect on the bishops. It might result in fewer parish churches being gutted to make way for auditorium-like seating arrangements or being denuded of statues, stations of the cross and holy water fonts, or having their tabernacles housing the Blessed Sacrament stowed in small, out-of-the-way rooms adjacent to the "main church."
Along with others who stubbornly cling to a traditional Catholicism -- including the teaching that the one thing that makes a Catholic church Catholic is the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament -- I suspect that a conscious effort exists to downgrade the Eucharist.
That suspicion was recently confirmed when I went to a parish church to attend what I thought would be a regularly scheduled weekday evening Mass in Spanish. I sat patiently through a long series of scriptural readings interspersed with responsorial recitatives and short inspirational commentaries by lay persons. My patience was based upon the expectation that the preliminaries would be followed by the liturgy of the Eucharist proper -- the Offertory, the Consecration, and Holy Communion -- since the presiding priest was wearing vestments. Imagine my disappointment when I learned that the long-winded verbal exercises were all there was to it. After they were over, the parish priest thanked the presider, a visiting priest, and invited the congregation to the parish hall. Instead of Holy Communion, we were being offered refreshments. It was a parody of the Mass as is sometimes enacted in private homes, or so I have heard.
Food and fellowship have their place, but I declined to attend the festivities in the parish hall. I went instead to the nursing home patient who had expected me to bring Holy Communion to her from the evening Mass. I had not Communion to give her, but we did pray the rosary.
I've made an early New Year's resolution to fight the good fight of spiritual warfare against the above-mentioned problems by spending more time before the Blessed Sacrament. There are several perpetual Eucharistic adoration chapels in my area. (So, there is good news.)
Do you think that the California bishops -- as a body -- would consider a public declaration calling upon the faithful to renew their devotion ("devotion" -- now there's an old-fashioned word) to our Eucharistic Lord, Jesus Christ, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament? How about a public declaration on the importance of the family rosary? Fat chance?
The demise of traditional Catholicism cannot do the Catholic bishops any good. You would think their common sense would tell them that. I am reminded of an erstwhile, newly appointed, young Catholic pastor who combined in the same homiy the assertion that "no one would go to hell for missing Mass on Sunday" with a money appeal for more generous donations to build a newer, bigger and better church. His congregation did not meet their building fund goal.
Lila Cuajuno,
Torrance
GO PROTESTANT, YOUNG MAN (OR WOMAN)
The two articles on priests' vocations [Buddy Shepherd ("I'm Outta Here," November 2002 Mission) and Michael Rose ("Not to Alarm You or Anything," November 2002 Mission)] were sad and a common story in today's Catholic Church.
I have a solution for Catholic men (and women) who fail to make it into a Catholic seminary. I think that they should all study theology in Protestant seminaries. I know that back in the 1960s, many Episcopalian and Presbyterian women studied theology, many earning Ph.D.s; then, when their churches voted to ordain women (as the Catholic Church will do someday!) they were ready to take their places as ministers and bishops.
Buddy Shepherd is 46 and is too old for junior seminary. There are undergraduate and graduate (if he already has a B.A. degree) programs where he can study Latin and religious studies. Most state universities have some very good departments of religious studies that are offering scholarly, non-denominational programs.
We are seeing more Catholic women with advanced theological degrees from Methodist and Presbyterian schools who are now the major administrative executives of Catholic parishes where priests are not available. I think that lay leadership is the wave of the future.
I think that when the leaders of the archdiocese tell men that they really don't meet the present needs of the Catholic Church, then it is time to move on. If one is still interested in a Catholic-style life, why not consider a future in biblical archaeology? Or a future in Catholic education? Or a Catholic who is an expert in Hebrew scriptures? Jewish seminaries (like Protestant seminaries) have an open-door policy for any student who wants to earn a degree. Ordination does not have to be the only goal or option for Catholics today.
Alan A. Snow,
Newport Beach