The Catholic Register - Readers Speak Out

Written by Catholic Register Readers,

God’s Big Bang

I may be naive, but I have no difficulty in accepting both creationism (as I understand it) and evolution.

I can accept the “Big Bang” beginning of the universe, assuming that it was caused by an all-powerful Being (God?). In fact I find that much more acceptable than the idea that it happened out of nothing and for no particular reason.

At that time, God, out of nothing, created time, space and matter. By definition then, He also created at that time what we now know as the rule of nature. He also created at that time the rules of chance by which evolution would produce the results it is producing. We must believe that prior to the Big Bang there was no such thing as chance in God’s kingdom.

Since He created these rules He knew how they would work, and there would be no real need for Him to interject Himself into these developments — unless He wanted to in a specific circumstance. Remember, too, that He created time. He exists outside of time, so that these interventions occur — for Him — at the same time as the Big Bang.

He did this to show His great glory and power, and the major objective of this creation, man, was designed with the ability to accept, or reject, the marvels of His love and beauty.

J.E. Jolie
Rockwood, Ont.

No Catholic bashing

Regarding the Aug. 19-26 article, “Simpsons’ family values,” I remember watching one Simpsons’ episode where a TV newscast showed a wrong footage while the “news” about the Pope was being aired. The footage showed a goat sucking milk. The newscaster grinned while apologizing for the mistake.

I have avoided watching the show since then.

While The Catholic Register has the duty to uphold press freedom, I believe it also has the right not to promote shows which are openly Catholic bashers.

Norma Macapagal
Oakville, Ont.

It was fluff

Having just finished carefully reading the Aug. 19-26 article “Catholic schools have a unique role to play,” I am amazed that you would print such an article with so little substance. It’s pure fluff.

Catholic education is indeed in big trouble, but Msgr. Dennis Murphy does not offer any realistic solutions. There are so many factors involved that a solution is not easily found. Perhaps a better view would be to ask the teachers and educators of today how they feel about this problem and its solution.

I have some experience in this area as I taught religion in a Catholic high school.

Margita Moore
Ottawa, Ont.

Don’t look back

I was 18 when the Second Vatican Council opened in 1962. That makes me a member of the last generation of Catholics who remember clearly what the Mass was like before the council — and who still know their Latin. I respect the old rite for what it meant to generations of Catholics, but have no desire to return to it.

Pope Paul VI understood clearly, as Pope Benedict surely does also, that Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s dispute with the Holy See was primarily about ecclesiology, not liturgy. Liturgical concessions alone will not bring about a restoration of full communion between the Society of St. Pius X and the Holy See. Bishop Bernard Fellay, the Superior General of SSPX, has made this clear in his public statements.

If you were to attend the principal Sunday Mass at Westminster Cathedral or The Oratory in London. Eng., you would think you were attending a pre-Vatican II high Mass. In fact, it is a modern Roman Mass sung in Latin with traditional ceremonial — including, at The Oratory, fiddle-back chasubles, birettas, a priest with his back to the people, and Communion kneeling. Few people under 55 would know the difference.

To conclude, a note on terminology: The time has come to retire the term Novus Ordo Missae. The motu proprio does not use it at all, nor does any other Vatican document I have seen. It is an invented term with a pejorative connotation. What is more, an Order of Mass that is the only one most Catholics born since 1960 can now remember is no longer new. It is simply Ordo Missae — the Order of Mass

R.H. Addington
London, Ont.