LETTERS
1999 LETTERS
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
LETTERS
MAY 1999
THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP
Editor's note: The following letter was sent to us in response to our investigation into Georgetown University's alleged support of Mexfam, the Mexican government's family planning agency (see "The Fewer, the Better", April Mission).
This is to acknowleged receipt of the March 1999 edition of the Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission newspaper. Thank you for including us in your mailing list. We have a resource center that is consulted by different organizations in the field of Natural Family Planning and it is always useful to include information about what other groups are doing regarding this topic.
On behalf of the Institute, I would like to thank you for giving us heads up on our name appearing on the web pages of other organizations. We are in the process of doing a review to determine which institutions list us as contributors. Certainly, we have already identified several and, when appropriate, requested that they clarify our involvement and/or support with them. As web pages are not revised on a monthly basis, we expect that such clarifications are considered in future revisions of the web pages.
We look forward to receiving future volumes of Mission.
Jeannette Cachan
Field Programs Specialist
Institute for Reproductive Health
Georgetown University Medical Center
WHY SUPPORT THE WORKER?
Why do you support the actions of the Catholic Worker group? [See "News," April 1999 Mission.] I support a strong national defense, including building and testing of nuclear weapons. It is necessary to defend our country from our enemies and the enemies of God. All those anti-nuclear protesters have suffered very little in comparison to pro-life demonstrators.
I like most of the text of your paper, though, at times, I think that you see sinister behavior by priests and nuns that doesn't really deserve condemnation.
John S. Davis
Altadena
Editor's Note: We do not support everything the Los Angeles Catholic Worker community does or stands for, though we do largely support the ideas and work of the Catholic Worker movement as formulated and lived by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. Though we have differences with the Los Angeles Workers, we do support their stand on nuclear weaponry. The destructive capability of nuclear weapons puts them beyond the acceptable means of national defense and makes them, rather, the instruments of terror and of warfare against non-combatants. Yes, we must defend our country, but only by moral means.
NOT CHRIST-LIKE IN TONE
I request you remove my name from your mailing list. I do not wish to receive your paper anymore. It seems to be aimed at division. Some things said are not Christ-like in tone--criticizing Church leaders when one should pray for them, unkind remarks about people, etc.
Ellen Benefield,
Orange
YOU HAVE A GREAT OPPORTUNITY
A few years ago, when the Mission was first introduced, the publication represented itself in a manner much like a high school protest newsletter. In many ways, the publication has vastly improved. Realizing that its purpose is to safeguard the orthodoxy practiced in the Church, I think that it's important that a few things be addressed.
I've noticed a few times that when Cardinal Mahony is mentioned, the recognition that he is a successor to the apostles is not presented in a respectful manner. Whether one agrees or disagrees with what he does or doesn't do can be a healthy tension of education. But under no circumstances should there be an element of disrespect presented if one is looking to objectively present the truth.
It would also be advantageous to have someone on your staff to address the letters that are represented. For example, one recent letter spoke of the materials used for the Blessed Sacrament. The writer had obviously not been acquainted with the documents of the Church pertaining to such vessels. There was no explanation or correction to assist her or point to the proper materials as represented in the General Instruction to the Roman Missal.
One publication quite a while back spoke of a priest who had allegedly attended a non-Catholic ordination, when in fact, he was out of the country at the time. Someone didn't do his or her research and slandered an innocent man. I don't remember reading an apology for the misinformation.
Your publication is to be applauded for some of the articles which explain the faith, especially in terms of the Church's teaching on abortion and life. It is obvious that the writers do a good amount of research concerning such articles.
What I'm trying to say here is that we must examine the way we appear to others. We cannot give a witness that looks as though we worship languages or liturgical practices. We worship God through languages and liturgical practices. The people of God need clarification between dogma, doctrine, and discipline. While dogma and doctrines cannot change, disciplines can. Jesus is Priest, Prophet, and King. He breathed His authority on the Apostles. That authority in their ministry is translated respectively to Sacrament, Teaching, and Governing. While the essence of Sacrament and Teaching cannot be changed, governing can be changed according to giving order or catechetical need and clarification. The apostolate or magisterium has every right by Christ to make these changes. For example, values on material substances are applied by mankind. The materials used in sacred vessels should be a noble substance, not of monetary value. If one is to criticize liturgies, it should be in the context of the balance between Sacrament and Sacrifice and the application of their effects through us in the world in spreading the Gospel.
Our task is not one of nit-picking, but rather bringing Christ and His salvation to others. While the materials of vessels does not affect the salvation of one's soul, what is inside them does when it is received with true piety and the intent of taking that most profound nourishment into the world. People can witness fighting and arbitrary argument anywhere in the world. It is not necessary to be seen in a publication with a Catholic label.
If one is to criticize a member of the Church, let it be a respectful, healthy and productive criticism. The criticism should contain authentic teaching with a stimulating contrast/comparative element that stimulates growth and knowledge.
You have a great opportunity for ministering to the educative needs of so many. We can always improve on our focus of Our Lord Jesus Christ and true knowledge of our expression of faith without stooping to ad hominem remarks or innuendoes. These remarks are extremely distracting to the points that are being made and often the point is lost entirely.
My prayer is that your publication continue to mature to become the fullness of what it represents; that is, to be provocatively stimulating for the salvific work of Jesus' Kingdom, which is present in the world through the power of His triumphant Resurrection. This can only be accomplished with the piety, truthfulness, humility, and charity that the saints have so perfectly exemplified. It can only be done with the kindness that Jesus gave to the worst of sinners.
Reverend Amaro Saumell
Administrator
St. Francis Xavier Cabrini Church, Crestline
Editor's note: It has always been our policy to print retractions with apologies when inaccuracies in our articles have been demonstrated.
I demur at the suggestion that criticism of current liturgical practice is "nit-picking" or mere "arbitrary argument." Liturgical practices are, indeed, means by which we worship God, and not the objects of worship; yet being means, and given their lofty purpose, they have to be fitting and effective means. Our liturgy, like the doctrinal formulations of our Faith, are received; and though both are the fruits of the Church's apostolic authority, they are, more properly, the fruits of the Holy Spirit's action through that authority. Thus, neither can be arbitrarily changed, and though subject to development, they many not be so developed so as to lose their essential character. This becomes clearer when we realize that the liturgy is not simply a means of worship, but one of the repositories of Sacred Tradition: lex orandi, lex credendi (the rule of prayer is the rule of faith). The apostolic authority exists, not as the arbitrary master of doctrinal and liturgical development, but as its servant and caretaker.
ASK THEMSELVES ONE VERY BIG QUESTION
Those of the laity, priests and religious who continuously find fault with your fine publications because you appear to them to be attacking their hierarchy, if they are sincere in their stated desire to defend the One True Catholic and Apostolic Faith, should ask themselves one very pertinent big question. "Had I lived during the so-called Reformation in England, would I have supported Cardinal Wolsey, or would I have supported the canonized martyr bishop, St. John Fisher?
If their answer is the former, they should ask themselves where their souls would very possibly be today!
Kenneth Fisher
Chairman & Founder
Concerned Roman Catholics of America Holy Innocents Reparation Committee