LETTERS
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Contents © 2001
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
LETTERS
MARCH 2001
GIVE US HOPE
How about writing about the good Catholic Masses? Give us articles from the people who love the Mass. Tell us about the parish where the priest and the people believe in God and the Catholic Church. Give us some hope.
As you continue to point out all that is wrong with the Catholic Church, you encourage people to leave rather than to work for change. Write of the successes. Give us hope. Give us contacts so that we may learn from others.
It is necessary to bring to the people's attention what is happening in our Church, but please do it with an attitude that the situation can and will change. The Mass is being attacked from within and without. Our young people don't even know what the Mass is. Our churches are beginning to look like halls. We need to stand together in prayer and pray for God's help to renew the Church. We need a leader to speak for renewal, not just condemnation.
You have a powerful media, use it well.
Colene
received by e-mail
Editor's note: We do try to offer articles that give hope -- and we have. A newspaper reflects the time, and in a time of struggle, reflects the struggle. A paper like ours does not exist primarily to give inspiration, but to inform readers of the state of the Church in our time. As for reporting on good Masses -- priests who offer reverent, traditional Masses do not want us to cover them. Given the current climate of the archdiocese of Los Angeles, these priests prefer to lie low.
SOMETHING IS OUT THERE
Your story of the hermit nun certainly was fascinating, and her experience seeking an orthodox community in California is not surprising. Becoming a hermit is such a rare and specialized vocation, I would not want your readers to get the wrong impression that there is nothing out there.
Sister Mary mentions her forays into the Benedictines. Equally rare today are good, orthodox Benedictine women's communities in the United States, and like Abraham, one must leave home and journey forth. I can personally recommend some Benedictine women's communities worthy of support and new vocations: The closest to California, in Bishop Chaput's "country," is the Abbey of St. Walburga in Colorado, http://www.walburga.org. They have great support from their bishop and laypeople throughout Colorado. Then, of St. Bede Publishers fame, St. Scholastica's Monastery, P.O. Box 606, Rte. 32, Petersham, Massachusetts, 01366. Next, the Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, H.C.R. 13, Box 11, Westfield, Vermont 05874, and their motherhouse just outside Montreal, Canada: Abbaye St. Marie Des Deux Montagnes, 2803 Chemin d'Oka, Ste. Marthe sur le Lac, Quebec, Canada JONIPO. All have Californians in their midst. Further afield, the English Benedictine Congregation is overall very good and each house has individual websites which can be found at: http://www.benedictines.org.uk. I pray this helps those discerning vocations and directs all those who support contemplatives.
Laurel Martin
received by e-mail
NOT "HOMOSEXUALIST" PROPAGANDA
I found it amusing, again, to see the line in a recent letter to the editor [see "Letters," February 2001 Mission]: "...the famous Los Angeles archdiocesan homosexualist propaganda video, Journey for Understanding, wherein Mahony, Liuzzi and a host of Catholic dissidents promoted the 'gay' Catholic life." I wrote, directed, photographed, edited, and produced Journey for Understanding. I did all the interviews and, most importantly, paid for the production myself. (There were a few individual gifts and a small fee paid by KCET.) Cardinal Mahony approved of the video because Church teaching in the documentary is clear and his statements are well within the guidelines of the Church. The documentary is balanced and a number of opinions in the program provide objectivity. It would not be a documentary if it only contained narrow-minded, vicious remarks about gay and lesbian Catholics. I'm not sure "homosexualist" is even a word and the documentary is certainly not propaganda.
You'll be glad to know that eight years after production and airing on several PBS stations around the country, the documentary is still selling well in dioceses in the United States and internationally. Thanks to the outreach and model of the Los Angeles archdiocese, gay and lesbian ministry to Catholics is alive and well. There are gay and lesbian Catholics, always have been and always will be. Now, may we move on to the real issues that the Church has to face?
Rick Flynn, Producer
Los Angeles
SOMETIMES INSIGHTFUL
I admire the journalistic competence of the Mission, its editor and contributors. The articles are well written and edited, sometimes quite insightful. They are also balanced whenever "balance" is possible. Most importantly, the Mission's resolve, published each month as part of its masthead -- "to report truthfully about the Catholic Church in Southern California" -- sets up an ideal that nobody should object to.
May God bless your endeavors.
Hal Milnes
Baldwin Park
YOU HAVE AN EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY
I recently read the February 2001 issue of the Mission. Although there is certainly room for improvement -- you need more short news items, photographs and a better layout -- I was pleased that such a publication exists. The issues you raise and discuss are of value to Southland Catholics, and being independent of the chancery apparatus, you are free to discuss these issues candidly.
Moreover, the Mission has an excellent opportunity to fill the void left by the lack of a quality, orthodox Catholic publication in the Los Angeles and surrounding areas. Cardinal Roger Mahony's Tidings has too long been the Catholic newspaper of record in the Southland, and although it has an attractive layout, its articles are too often either wishy-washy and worthless, or even unabashed in their promotion of heresy. The Tidings has also taken over the production of the Orange diocese's newspaper which, though very glitzy, either contains articles of little value or which promote a far left agenda.
Sadly, the papers ultimately reflect the extreme left views of the cardinal (and his lackey in Orange, Tod Brown). Southland Catholics have indicated their enthusiasm for the cardinal's mouthpiece by not buying it; circulation had plummeted since I was a child. In fact, a priest-friend of mine shared that the cardinal is now mandating that parishes buy a certain number of copies of his unwanted newspaper each month. Evidently, the Tidings is about as popular as the so-called Rodge Mahal cathedral Mahony is trying to build at a price tag of $165 million! (And, what a surprise, now Tod Brown wants to build a cathedral in Orange!)
So please continue in your efforts to improve the Mission. I'll be on the look out for your next issue.
Roger Smith
Long Beach
THE CHURCH EMASCULATED
When I read "Act Manfully, Lord Bishops" in the December 2000 Mission, a light went on in my head. I thought, "that's what's happened to the Church since Vatican II -- emasculation." The Church before had its problems, but at least it was masculine. You could see it in the church buildings -- rectangular, angular. Now the move is on for churches in the round. There's holdng hands, homilies instead of sermons, God-loves-us-unconditionally instead of "be hot or cold; the lukewarm I will vomit out of my mouth." No wonder I feel icky in church -- feminine minds have taken over.
God happens to identify Himself in masculine terms in the Bible. Mothers mother. They love their babies unconditionally. The God of the Bible doesn't. When I read the Gospels, the impression I get of Jesus is of His masculinity. I can just see him standing there, pointing, making one of His challenging statements.
One of the best things Ronald Reagan did as president was to put his foot down in the air traffic controllers' strike. One of the best things Pope John Paul II has done is to put his foot down about women priests. What he or the next pope needs to do is root out the homosexual priests. It won't be easy, but he needs to do it and to do it unapologetically. There will be a great sigh of relief among all true God-fearing people when he does.
That's advice from a non-Catholic, who sits by uncomfortably at Mass.
Joe O'Brien