The Catholic Register - Readers Speak Out

Written by Catholic Register Readers,

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Numbers are flawed

I would like to comment on Jack Granatstein’s statement that over 70 per cent of Afghans also want NATO troops to be there, to protect them from bad guys (“Bishops on Afghanistan are either wise or naive,” March 9).

The Environics poll, conducted by D3 Systems in Afghanistan, is being touted as groundbreaking research into the views of the Afghan people about NATO occupation. The reality is that there are as many questions as answers arising from the poll results.

This poll is not the first of its kind to be done in Afghanistan, but the results are striking because they contradict dozens of comprehensive studies conducted by other agencies. For example 73 per cent of respondents in the D3 Systems study said that women’s rights were improving in Afghanistan. This contradicts the NGO Womenkind Worldwide which found that attacks against women have actually been on the rise since 2001 and that there had been no improvement in the lives of Afghan women as a whole.

The statement that 70 per cent want NATO to be there contradicts countless documents from groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch which cite the army and Afghan National Police as a chief source of violence. The numbers from D3 Systems either represent an astounding turnaround in public opinion or there was some type of flaw in the research.

These strange results aren’t surprising given the history of the D3 Systems polling firm. The group, whose former clients include Rand Corporation (a virtual who’s who of the military industrial complex), is notorious for providing the results that are needed to advance a political agenda.

Tellingly, D3 Systems is the only polling firm in the world that was able to consistently show that a majority of Iraqis felt their lives have improved since the invasion of 2003. In 2004 and 2005, D3 conducted polls for media outlets based in the United States and found more than 50 per cent of Iraqis were excited about their future.

There are still many other unanswered questions about this survey. For example, did security or military contingents escort the survey teams around the country? If so the results would be terribly skewed, as these types of escort would destroy the impartiality of the surveyors.

The survey Granatstein refers to, I believe, came out at a very fortuitous time for the government, days after a throne speech advocating the extension of Canada’s war in Afghanistan.

Ron MacDougall
Sydney, N.S.

Divine Mercy lives

Over the years, I have observed that there seems to be a determined effort by the archdiocese to discourage participation in the Divine Mercy devotions.

The Lord Jesus appeared to St. Faustina back in the 1930s and dictated to her Divine Mercy prayers, novena (which begins on Good Friday) intentions and instructions regarding the Feast of Divine Mercy, which falls on the first Sunday after Easter Sunday. Jesus encouraged priests to teach the prayers, spread the devotion and celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy — thereby bringing lost souls to Him.

Yet today, many Catholics remain totally ignorant about the importance of the Divine Mercy chaplet, novena and feast.

Few parishes openly promote the devotion or even permit parishioners to gather and publicly pray the chaplet. Why are so few parishes in Toronto celebrating the novena/feast of Divine Mercy this year?

One possible reason for this is that some priests lack faith in private revelation. How utterly pathetic and shameful that consecrated souls have no experience of the power of God. They know about Jesus from books, but they don’t know Him. No doubt, they will cringe and weep at the number of souls lost because of their attempts to deliberately prevent parishioners from gathering to pray the Divine Mercy prayers or celebrating the fast of Divine Mercy.

Christine Majta
Toronto, Ont.

Pray for troops

More than one year ago, a tearful woman approached me in the library to ask me why we were not praying regularly in Catholic churches for our troops in Afghanistan, as we did for our troops during the Second World War. Her grandson was serving in Afghanistan and his buddy had been killed by a suicide bomber while he was handing out candy to school girls.

Ever since then I have included in the intercessions at Mass the following petition: “May the efforts of our troops in Afghanistan be productive of a better life for the Afghan people, and may they return home safely and soon.”

In the recent statement by Winnipeg Archbishop James Weisgerber, “Call for a True Peace Process in Afghanistan,” we find these words, “I also invite every person of faith to join me in prayer — that the Afghan people find peace and security; that the families of soldiers who gave their lives find consolation; …” I hope that Catholics in Canada, from coast to coast, will join in prayer for this worthy cause.

Fr. Francis X. Johnson, S.J.
Toronto, Ont.

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