The Catholic Register - Readers Speak Out

Written by Catholic Register Readers,

Convenient morality

I thought Sara Loftson’s article in the Dec. 16 edition of The Catholic Register, subtitled “Mercy killing is not just a faith issue,” to be absolutely excellent about euthanasia and assisted suicide. It’s a good argument for another separation between church and state debate. Or is it?

As Catholics, we have seen too much progress made in society at the expense of honest morality. Have common- law relationships been good social progress? Has same-sex marriage been good social progress? Has the invention of the pill been good social progress? Has the advent of obscene language movies been good social progress? All this begs the question (with or without church): Have our young people made good social progress?

For those of us who work in a social service, in one capacity or another, there is reason for some doubt. The doubt rises from the staggering costs, which did not exist in our parent’s time, for today’s “convenient” morality, and all the above questions are quite Catholic (meaning quite universally abounding).

Now if euthanasia and assisted suicide, quite universally bounding, become legal across the land, would it not eventually lead to the “good social progress” of just legally eliminating grievously sick old and otherwise burdensome peoples, who have also been allowed to live at a staggering cost? Would we not, therefore, have a much more “convenient” morality?

Paul D. Haines
Toronto, Ont.

Looking for leadership

I am writing to clarify an article in the Nov. 21 issue of The Catholic Register. The article, written by Michael Swan, deals with the sale of a monastery building within the Ukrainian Catholic eparchy of Toronto and it briefly quotes me with a comment about the self-sustaining character of monastic communities. I really have no complaint with the quote or the manner in which it was used. However, it has since been brought to my attention that the controversy surrounding the sale of the property has in fact gone on for several months and at times has become rather unpleasant.

The question has been raised as to whether I was associated with a certain vociferous group that apparently is at the heart of the dispute. Very simply, I am not associated with any group. My comments to the reporter are how they appear in the article — an opinion about monastic life in general.

At the risk of not letting this sleeping dog lie, however, I just want to add another observation about the evident desire for an authentic monastic community in Canada.

When one delves into the foundation of many of the great monasteries in Europe and the Middle East there is often a particular common element. Usually it all begins with a single individual who, seeking personal perfection, chooses to give himself/herself totally to the Lord by taking up abode in a remote area. The decision is to spend the rest of one’s life in that location in prayer and asceticism. Eventually — perhaps after years — the faithful learn about this individual and come to ask for counsel and some ask to stay. In time, a larger place and the necessary dwelling accommodations may be humbly erected by the community itself. Perhaps what we need first in Canada is such an individual. Perhaps he/she is already out there.

Fr. Michael Kwiatkowski
Ottawa, Ont.

Review an outrage

I am quite upset that a newspaper that is supposed to be Catholic publishes a positive review of The Golden Compass by the Office for Film and Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (“Film adaptation is hardly anti-Catholic,” Dec. 23).

When the bishops became aware of the positive review they withdrew their support for it and condemned it. Someone pulled the wool over their eyes and they were temporarily asleep at the wheel.

At least three U.S. Catholic bishops have since condemned the film as being an attack on the Catholic Church. An organization called the Magisterium is the bad guy in this film. Pullman himself is an atheist and if successful would make the other two books of the trilogy, each worse than The Golden Compass, into films. With a budget of $180 million this movie has far to go to recoup its losses so far. In short, the film has bombed in the United States no doubt due to the vigilance of Catholics who spoke out against the latest attack on the church.

Surely, The Register must have known by now that this positive review on The Golden Compass was an outrage. Shame on you for printing the review without adverse comment.

Leslie J. Sharples
Etobicoke, Ont.

Controversial Review

If The Catholic Register is aiming to be controversial, you have scored big time. After the surprising review of Brokeback Mountain by Michael Swan, you have now published the review by Harry Forbes of the anti-Catholic movie The Golden Compass written by atheist Philip Pullman, who has publicly stated his intention to kill God in the minds of children.

Forbes is the director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Office of Film and Broadcasting whose review of Brokeback Mountain was subsequently modified by the USCCB. He became the centre of controversy earlier this month when the USCCB withdrew his positive review of The Golden Compass. While the film may have been “sanitized,” the fear is that children will want to read the trilogy of books.

Further, Forbes has given a positive review to the homosexually themed film Rent. It is hoped you will not further promote anti-Catholic teaching in our Catholic paper. Incidentally, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano criticized The Golden Compass, promoted as a Christmas film, calling it anti-Christmas and saying that Pullman advocates “a totally atheist ideology, the enemy of all religions and of Christianity and Catholicism in particular.”

Jim Meyer
Toronto, Ont.