The Catholic Register - Readers Speak Out

Written by Catholic Register Readers,

Hope for CBC

I have been meaning to write this letter every time I finish reading one of Peter Kavanagh's columns. I find him a very insightful and articulate sign of hope.

I stopped listening to CBC Radio back in the days when a certain radio host likened the Catholic Church to the mafia. Yet, whenever, I read one of Kavanagh's articles, there is a hope that one day soon I will take a chance on returning as a listener to CBC Radio and if and when I do, it will be because of a certain senior producer at CBC Radio.

Ricardo Di Cecca
Burlington, Ont.

We know the difference

Dr. Andrew Caruk states in his Dec. 30-Jan. 6 letter, “Bold moves applauded,” that “with the legalization of same-sex marriage in Parliament the destruction of true marriage has regrettably begun in this country.” He fails to refer to the fact that 50 per cent of heterosexual marriages end in divorce, and that at least one-third of newborn babies are born from unwed mothers.

Loving compassionate and committed same-sex couples who marry are in fact a confirmation of the institution of marriage as are loving, compassionate and committed heterosexuals. To state “the public purpose of marriage no longer includes anything related to procreation” would logically conclude that a widow and widower who decide to marry but are beyond the childbearing age should not be allowed to do so. Does Dr. Caruk reject such marriages as invalid? Are couples who practice birth control to be no longer considered to be validly married when they no longer wish to have children after having the number they chose to have?

Jesus stressed love and showed us the way to be compassionate to those looked down on by the society of his day. He saw the goodness found in every person. The same-sex marriage today via the church is like the tax collector via the Sadducees and Pharisees of Christ's time.

Where is the “scandal” caused by listening to James Loney talk about his experience as a hostage in Iraq? The scandal is that the hierarchy fails to give the laity credit for being able to distinguish between surviving a hostage situation, and a person's positive stance on homosexuality.

Jack Murphy
Meteghan Centre, N.S.

Clarification

I would like to correct an error in Robert White's article (“Gay resource book removed by Waterloo board,” Dec. 16). His article stated “Fonseca argued that the main issue is that teaching from the resource has the potential to normalize homosexual activity — possibly leading a student to adopt a homosexual lifestyle.”

In fact, that statement was only half true. The main issue was that the resource normalized homosexual behaviour. However, our organization never argued that particular book would lead students to adopt a homosexual lifestyle. Or concern was that normalizing homosexual conduct would potentially lead students to reject scriptural and magisterial teaching on homosexual acts. There's a big difference between claiming that (a) heterosexual children may be influenced to reject church teaching or, (b) that a student who struggles with same-sex attractions may be influenced to adopt a gay lifestyle. Our presentation to the board argued the formed (see ww.defendmarriagekw.org/FamilyLife Presentation.html).

I believe that White inadvertently mixed my comments about two different board-approved resources. I spoke to him about the board's approval for children who experience same-sex attractions, of an openly gay therapist who lives in a homosexual relationship. In reference to that, I indeed stated our realistic concern that it may lead students to adopt a gay lifestyle.

Jack Fonseca
Communications Director
Defend Traditional Marriage & Family
Waterloo, Ont.

Another challenge

The Character Development Initiative proposed by the government of Ontario has definitely created another new challenge for Catholic education in the province of Ontario. Catholic schools in Ontario have the Ontario Catholic Graduate Expectations, which outline all of the goals of our system for all of the students.

Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins provided great hope and insight into what we do as Catholic educators. It is difficult to deny the value of character education; however, in the light of Catholic education, the virtues which we extol are inherent in all that we do and live in our schools and a separate curriculum for character education would probably be at the expense of Catholic education.

One only has to look at the experience of Catholic education in the province of Quebec. In September 2008, the Ministry of Education in Quebec will have phased out religious education totally and will replace it with character education. This was a process that faced little opposition and Catholic education in a historically and culturally Catholic province will vanish.

As Catholics, we must be aware of the possible implications of a specific character education program in our schools. When the time comes to profess our distinctiveness as a system, would the Character Development Initiative make us different from the public system?

Dr. Mark Siolek
Toronto, Ont.

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