There are some significant differences between Canadian and American politics at this time of our two upcoming elections.
Stephane Dion, a “pro-choice” politician, recently baited Stephen Harper by wanting to know his personal views on abortion. Harper, who is normally hyper-aggressive with Dion, retreated like a tortoise into his shell.
U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, when asked when human life begins, stated unequivocally and quite correctly that it starts at conception. For Democrat candidate Barack Obama this was a question beyond his pay scale.
Sarah Palin, McCain’s new vice-presidential running mate, is 100-per-cent pro-life and has proved it by absolutely refusing to abort her fifth child born in April with Down’s Syndrome.
Some time you have to admire those Americans for upholding Western Judeo-Christian values.
Paul Vandervet
Cambridge, Ont.
Don’t throw stones
John Bentley Mays has had enough of women’s ordination. In his Aug. 31 column, “Enough already with women’s ordination,” he builds a strong case against the women involved in the Lexington, Kentucky, ordination. He does, however, overshoot his mark.
The homily that was given by Fr. Roy Bourgeois was printed in full in the National Catholic Reporter (a U.S. publication). He was quite convincing in his reasoning. In it he quotes a letter he wrote when he was 26 years in the priesthood, in which he felt that the church needed the “wisdom, sensitivity, experiences, compassion and courage of women in the priesthood if our church is to be healthy and complete.” This then was not a snap decision on his part, but rather a painful realization that, 10 years later, he had to back up what he believed with action or back down. He chose to stand up for his convictions. Is this not courageous?
The controversy about women’s ordination will not end today, but compassion and reason may win the day eventually either way. In the meantime, as Fr. Ron Rolheiser so graciously put it in his column, the church needs to offer comfort, and he points out that “God never feels frightened by the assertions of human freedom.” What will not heal this issue is to pick up a stone and throw it at the offending women. Jesus wrote something about that, and wasn’t it in the sand?
Virginia Edman
Toronto, Ont.
We all contribute
I was glad to read John Bentley Mays ’ article in the Aug. 31 edition. I too have had enough of this “ordination” of women business.
Surely everyone must realize that Christ could have been called in His day a “women’s liberator” in the way He treated and talked to women. Had He wanted to He could easily have put the onus on women to go out and spread the word.
However, He didn’t do that but put the onus on the men to do that. It is up to them to carry out this task — not to shunt it off on women. Women can and do play a different role in the church and all when combined are what contribute to the functioning of the church and the spreading of the Good News.
Would you believe that I know at least a hundred people, both old and young, who agree completely with her criticisms and sadness about the poor quality of many of the Masses to which we Catholics are subjected.
A friend of mine checked out “Do the Red, Say the Black,” on the Internet, and there are many items available. What would the offending priests say if parishioners showed up wearing such t-shirts or buttons to Mass?
Claudine Goller
Toronto, Ont.
Looking for conversion
Regarding the Aug. 31 article, “Catholic Insight not clear yet ,” Rob Wells’ continued battle against Catholic Insight shows that his intention is not righting a perceived wrong but fighting the true church.
It is sad that his action has caused much pain for Fr. Alphonse de Valk and his staff and that this type of persecution has continued to this day, 2,000 years after St. Paul participated in an earlier wave of attacks. At the same time, in this year honouring the most famous convert of all times, let us hope and pray that God may work wonders in Wells’ life and may make him Paul of our time.
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