The Catholic Register - Readers Speak Out

Written by Catholic Register Readers,

Too much rancour

“God is love,” “God is perfect,” “God is forgiving” — are these mere slogans of our faith or are they beacons with which we can navigate the perils of life?

I am surprised by the tenor of articles and letters in The Catholic Register by persons vigourously expressing their opposite points of view regarding certain liturgical practices. These debates are not helped when points are scored by reference to a member of the clergy who is said to have initiated or holds the same view.

We claim to be a “pilgrim church,” inferring in part that we are still searching for the “Truth” both in faith and observance. In this we are guided by the Holy Spirit. Vatican II was inspired by the Holy Spirit to review and renew the church. Much of what transpired there was written down in the documents. Some of what was written, since it was written by human beings, may not adequately capture the whole of the Spirit’s message.

Let us each ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in our search also, to help us practise our Christian love for each other. “By their love, you shall know them as Christians.”

Linlay J. Forsyth
Mississauga, Ont.

Treat women as equals

In your June 15 paper your Page 2 article stated that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has decreed that “a woman who attempts to be ordained a Catholic priest and the person attempting to ordain her are automatically excommunicated.”

How sad it is that the Vatican excommunicates people who show great reverence for the Mass and the celebration of the Eucharist. We have always felt that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was the first “priest” as it was she who presented to the world the body and blood of Jesus, which the current Catholic priests and bishops claim to do at the consecration of the bread and wine at Mass.

Fr. Augustine Di Noia, undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, states: “the church has said it is authorized to ordain only baptized men and in that way is following the example of Christ.” If Christ’s example is the justification for banning ordained women, then the Pope, the members of the CDF and the hierarchy would not be living in mansions and they would be preaching daily in public parks. To my knowledge Jesus never excommunicated anyone.

Jesus never stated that women could not be priests. This is a church law, just as not eating meat on Fridays was a church law. Vatican II changed several traditions. It is time that the church accepted women on a fully equal basis.

Jack Murphy and Daniel Poirier
Meteghan Centre, N.S.

Rubrics not followed

The June 15 article, “One with the Earth,” was colourful and revealing by the photos, but disturbing. The altar, a bale of straw, was hardly a safe surface for the chalices of Precious Blood. There was a corporal, but no altar cloth, no candles or crucifix visible. The celebrant, Fr. Jim Profit, was seated on a bale of straw very close to the altar as he celebrated Mass wearing a stole but no alb. A few years ago Fr. Empereur, S.J., a noted liturgist and former editor of Modern Liturgy, said in a public lecture, “Wearing a stole without an alb is like wearing a necktie without a shirt.”

There was no Roman Missal on the altar, but rather a few sheets of paper. The Ordo issued by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops states: “The official editions of the Roman Missal and lectionary are to be used, rather than any photocopied, reproduced or disposable copies of the text.” We can only guess whether there was a lectionary and whether the readings were those specified for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time. The account of the homily leaves some doubts.

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

Informed opinion lacks

It’s not clear if Ashley d’Souza has actually read the book Catholics and Slavery that apparently caused such distress (“Book was slanted,” Reader Opinions, June 8). The intended target of d’Souza’s criticism could be any of the following: The Catholic Register for publishing the review, the reviewer in question for writing it, John Perry for selecting the subject of his book, Novalis for publishing it or Catholic scholarship in general.

Ashley d’Souza suggests that Novalis represents an “enemy within” with a mission to attack with an anti-Catholic slant. That’s a damaging claim. A more informed response to what John Perry’s book actually says about the Catholic Church’s complex history with slavery and how it presents Catholic commitment to social justice will surely counter the loose language used in the letter.

Since 1936 Novalis, through its publications, has served thoughtful Catholics and people of all ages and circumstances who wish to foster their personal and spiritual growth. Our books are for people who want to explore questions of ultimate meaning and who seek to understand and integrate their faith and their history more fully in their daily lives. Yes, Novalis publishes lots of opinion. We also strive to ensure that opinion is based on fact, not hearsay. In stating an opinion, like the exercise of conscience in our tradition, each of us has the responsibility to ensure that we are fully informed.

Kevin Burns
Editorial Director, English Books
Ottawa, Ont.

Choice misguided

What a sad day for Canada to give the highest civic award to Henry Morgentaler. And it was done on Canada Day. I’m writing to express my strongest disagreement with this misguided choice.

There are those who see this man as a champion of women’s right to choose and a supporter of freedom. Neither, regrettably, is the case. We cannot judge Morgentaler’s conscience, but I reject and urge others to reject his thinking that a fetus is an object to be destroyed whenever we feel like it. The words we use to refer to a living being don’t give us the right to annihilate it.

We need laws based on logic, reason and natural law to protect the innocent. Being unborn should not be a death sentence. It is simply the first nine months of life. Given a chance they will become good future Canadian citizens.

How can we build the common good when a percentage of our citizens are killed before they are even born? We strongly appeal to all those who have received the Order of Canada to return it. The Canada we want to be part of and wish to continue to build does not include honouring the destruction of its weakest citizens.

We fully support the response by Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins on this serious matter.

Lou and Michelle Iacobelli
Toronto, Ont.

Protests award

By granting the Order of Canada, the highest award in the country to its citizen Dr. Henry Morgentaler for his promotion of abortion, Canada has made a black spot and ugly appearance in its humanity. I do not appreciate the Order of Canada any longer as it has been granted to a killer of unborn people.

The Catholics of Canada should protest against the Order of Canada granted to an abortionist.

Mile Pletikosa
Scarborough, Ont.

It makes no sense

I’ve tried to rationalize the announced investiture of Dr. Henry Morgentaler as a member to the Order of Canada.

Eligibility is based on the individual’s lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.

Dr. Henry Morgentaler does not meet these basic considerations for the award. The proposed recipient has spent the major portion of his professional life advocating the death of the unborn, ending the life of the unborn, scoffing at the belief there is life in the womb, petitioning the Canadian government to allow the aborting of life and breaking the Criminal Code of Canada prior to criminal law reversals.

How do these facts warrant Dr. Morgentaler being a viable candidate for the Order of Canada?

We have reached new lows in our efforts to turn away from God and His ordinances. Instead of heralding and honouring a woman in child labour, we choose to bestow accolades on an individual who dedicated his life to ending womb life.

The complicity of our federal and provincial governments in aborting the lives of the unborn is well documented in the laws passed. New laws are being contemplated designed to end the lives of the terminally ill, with or without consent.

What next? Awards for those who avoid doctors and decease?

Paul Mulhern
Toronto, Ont.

Don’t turn back

Regarding “Two cardinals at odds over number of Tridentine Masses” in the July 6-13 Register, I am almost too numb with anger to communicate on this subject. With all due respect, it is exceedingly regressive to consider the reinstatement of the Tridentine Mass in any form in any parish.

The Second Vatican Council made one of the most progressive steps in the history of the Catholic Church when it ordered that Mass should be celebrated in the vernacular and that the altar should be turned around to invite parishioners to participate more intimately in a sacred rite. The current thinking, under the leadership of Pope Benedict XVI, suggests that the council got it wrong and we should return to the days of the Tridentine Mass where the vast majority of Catholics were passive observers of a sacred and even secret rite.

I grew up in the post-Vatican II Catholic Church and I have absolutely no interest in returning to those days. Regarding the decree that the Tridentine Mass is a) a treasure from the past and b) a gift of God, what scriptural authority exists for such an assertion? In my opinion, no such scriptural authority exists and to continue fostering such an assertion is precisely “a return to the past.”

Brad Sinclair
Scarborough, Ont.

No contradiction

Regarding your article “Two cardinals at odds over number of Tridentine Masses” in the July 6-13 Register, there is no clear evidence that Cardinals Marc Ouellet and Dario Castrillon Hoyos are “at odds” as you put it, over how many churches should, in any Catholic diocese, use the more ancient form of the Mass, the Tridentine rite.

Clearly, Cardinal Ouellet is expressing an honest opinion — nothing more — when he said that at the moment there is no need for the Tridentine rite to be celebrated further in his archdiocese. He didn’t, however, say that this shouldn’t happen. The reason for this is that the motu proprio issued by the Vatican on renewed implementation of the Tridentine rite made it abundantly clear that if a group of Catholics tell their parish priest that they want the Tridentine rite, there is nothing all the cardinals and bishops in the world can do to stop it happening. The Vatican has guaranteed this. In short, the line is open to the top.

At the same time it is also clear that, preferences aside, the Tridentine rite is not being imposed on anybody — it is up to the parishes. And neither our Holy Father nor any other cleric has ever said it will be.

Let’s be honest, the reason why there has not been a rush of parishioners to ask for the Tridentine rite is simply because a whole generation of Catholics have been brought up on the more modern form of the Mass, the Novus Ordo, and they simply haven’t yet experienced the beauty of the more ancient rite; what Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos characterizes as “the power of the silence, the power of the sacred way in front of God, the deep theology, to discover how and why the priest represents the person of Christ and to pray with the priest.”

Douglas C. Peck
Etobicoke, Ont.

So goes the church

I am confused by Catholic Register editor Joseph Sinasac’s divisive article in which he pits church cardinals against one another over Pope Benedict XVI’s wish to have the Tridentine Mass celebrated in every parish (“Two cardinals at odds over number of Tridentine Masses,” July 6-13).

The return to tradition and solemnity is irreversible. It is no secret that most Catholic bishops and their officials have tried to stifle the Latin Mass ever since Pope John Paul II, of fond memory, permitted it with Ecclesia Dei. Thanks to Pope Benedict XVI, however, priests no longer need to have the approval of their disobedient bishops to celebrate the Latin Mass. And soon all seminarians will be taught how to preside at the Tridentine Mass. This will give the Holy Spirit room to weave His awesome power and majesty and relegate modernism and its ugly divisiveness back to the junk heap where it belongs.

A few months ago The Catholic Register also had an ongoing debate about the merits of kneeling for Holy Communion. On June 26, as reported by Catholic News Service, the Pope put this issue to rest by stating that it will be the norm at all papal liturgies for all communicants to receive the Eucharist on the tongue from the Pope while kneeling. As the Pope goes, so goes the church.

John Hill
Toronto, Ont.

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