The Catholic Register - Readers Speak Out

Written by Catholic Register Readers,

Let’s hear other side

Canada needs freedom of speech. The Catholic Register set a good example by publishing Boyd Tolton’s letter (“Homosexuals have lives,” Feb. 24).

Now let us hear from readers who may wish to engage in a rational and respectful dialogue. We should especially invite moderate homosexuals. For example:

The ones who are embarrassed by the antics of people who march in Gay Pride parades.
The ones who help carry on their family name by relishing the role of aunt or uncle to the children of their siblings.
The ones who encourage heterosexual friends to marry and have children because Canada’s plunging birth rate is causing problems that cannot be fixed by immigration.
The ones who send roses on Mother’s Day and carnations on Father’s Day, and keep pictures of their grandparents.

Finally, many homosexuals cherish the freedom of the press. I hope that some of them will volunteer to testify as witnesses for the defence in the case of Catholic Insight magazine.

Anthony Pittarelli
Winnipeg, Man.

In defence of kneeling

St. Augustine’s Seminary professor Fr. Frank Carpinelli is theologically and biblically incorrect in claiming that “kneeling to God… does not come from the Bible” (“Kneeling isn’t biblical,” March 16). This is a common mistake people make when they try to over analyse certain words and biblical passages.

Pope Benedict XVI, who many think an expert in exegesis and biblical languages, has previously proclaimed St. Luke to be in a “special way the theologian of kneeling prayer.” St. Luke, we are told by the Pope, “tells us that Jesus prayed on His knees (when He) entered into His Passion” an an “example for us.”

Pope Benedict XVI has also previously alluded to the fact that the Hebrew word “barak,” which he interprets “to kneel,” is found “in important passages of the Old Testament” and signified “an expression of worship.” In his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, Pope Benedict XVI strongly advises us that indeed “kneeling… comes from the Bible.” He also strongly warns us against Catholics “of no small influence, who are trying to talk us out of kneeling.” One can only wonder what our young seminarians and future priests are learning these days.

Al Smith
Toronto, Ont.

Kneeling had limits

In addition to Fr. Frank Carpinelli’s scholarly letter on kneeling in the Bible (“Kneeling isn’t biblical,” March 16), Canon XX of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea actually forbids kneeling on Sundays and from Easter to Pentecost:

“Forasmuch as there are certain persons who kneel on the Lord’s Day and in the days of Pentecost, therefore, to the intent that all things may be uniformly observed everywhere (in every parish), it seems good to the holy synod that prayer be made to God standing.” The ancient Epitome of Canon XX reads: On Lord’s days and at Pentecost all must pray standing and not kneeling.

Kneeling was seen to be expression of sorrow for one’s sins. Of course, there was no prohibition against kneeling during the Divine Liturgy on weekdays. But to stand symbolizes the Lord’s Resurrection and the hope of our personal resurrection in Him when He comes again — something that the church celebrates anew on each and every Sunday.

Sunday was formerly entitled, “The Day of the (Lord’s) Resurrection.” The Eastern churches continue to follow this directive with respect to standing only on Sundays and throughout the Paschal season as issued by the Ecumenical Council. This was at one time binding on all parishes throughout the once united Christian church, east and west.

Alexander Roman
Toronto,Ont.

A history lesson

In the March 2 edition of your newspaper (“Lord’s Prayer least of Ontario’s worries”), Frank Klees, the Conservative MPP, speaks about the importance of cultural history and our need not to shed it. He then is quoted as saying: “When the first parliament was established in London at Westminster Abbey the main hall was the church itself. The altar was removed to make room for the speaker’s chair. That is why to this day there are prayers before proceedings.”

This information is utterly false. The first parliament in London was established at the Palace of Westminster, a structure erected in 1065 by Edward the Confessor and used as a home by the succession of royal families until Henry VIII moved his family out after a fire. Since then over hundreds of years the palace was used as a meeting place for the royal councils and slowly evolved into what it has become today. The nearby Westminster Abbey, however, is an ancient religious edifice and when the Church of England was established, became a royal peculiar, a building curiously owned directly by the head of the royal family and not by the church over which she or he presides.

One wonders where Klees got his information from, if anywhere, and why he later makes such a fictional interpretation of the role of the speaker’s chair replacing the altar. Consequently, one questions how reliable that gentleman’s other claims to historical knowledge, whether religious or political, can be.

James P.B. Kelly
Markham, Ont.

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