The Catholic Register - Readers Speak Out

Written by Catholic Register Readers,

Defenceless abandoned

I was pleased to read that you, too, had reservations about Amnesty International’s response to our objection to their involvement in abortion (“AI’s explanation ,” July 8-15).

What bothered me about the answer from Alex Neve, Canadian secretary general, was that he condemned the fact that we opposed abortion, but seemed oblivious to the fact that the issues that cause women seeking abortion are what need to be addressed.

This is the same false rhetoric that makes pro-choice, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research, etc., seem so admirable. It makes me wonder if AI is also part of Planned Parenthood, which has tentacles in so many other worthy causes. I hope some pro-life organization looks into this.

Otherwise, it makes me wonder how anyone in his position could be so ignorant as to defend a woman’s access to abortion as a right when its policy is to defend the rights of the defenceless.

Carolyn Cole
La Salle, Ont.

Defending AI

With reference to the article about Amnesty International’s abortion policy in The Catholic Register July 1, Cardinal Renato Martino imposes an unrealistic burden on the rape victim. Jesus states in Matthew 23:4 that “they tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people’s shoulders and they will not lift a finger to move them.”

I pray to our heavenly Father that nothing of this sort happens to my children but I feel sorry for the rape victims. So many injustices are going on in this world and that is why we pray to the heavenly Father for His kingdom to come and deliver us from evil.

If I were Cardinal Martino, I would take full financial and other responsibilities to isolate those rape victims from the society that they live in and build up their self-worth again and in this way I would prevent the abortion from taking place.

I personally believe that no one should stop supporting Amnesty International.

Charles Vijayakumar
Toronto, Ont.

Doubly offended

I do not know which idea bothered me more. First we were told about some poor lady in Nigeria and as a response to her plight we are supposed to advocate the killing of millions of babies. Perhaps when Amnesty International addresses those cultures that deny women’s rights they might want to consider the rights of the unfortunate victims of abortion (the victims of choice in India are female babies).

All this being said, I thought that the most offensive idea was that The Catholic Register would give any print space to a group of abortion supporters (“Amnesty International responds,” July 1). What next?

Will you invite Planned Parenthood to opine? We used to have a newspaper that offered what its editors considered balanced news. It was called The Catholic New Times. It was so lovely to see it fold.

Dan Irwin
Toronto, Ont.

Schools are church

I was shocked by the letter of Fr. Ed Henhoeffer in the June 17 issue of The Catholic Register regarding the Catholic school system in the province of Ontario. Just who or what does he propose to “prune”? We are not talking about an “historical good,” we are talking about our children — the future of our church. Sadly, in some cases the Catholic school is the only church our children know. Are these children to be abandoned?

Fr. Henhoeffer questions whether there is an ecclesial spirit in our schools. My dictionary defines ecclesial as “of or having to do with the church or the clergy.” I started teaching in Ontario Catholic schools 33 years ago and there have been changes. We do not have parish priests visiting every week as we did when I started my career. There are simply not enough priests, but we remain church.

When we pray each morning as a staff, we are church. When we pray with our students, we are church. When we celebrate our liturgies, we are church. When we work for ShareLife, or raise money to dig wells in India or to care for AIDS orphans in Africa, we are church. When we answer the call of our parishes to support our food banks, we are church. When we teach our children to solve their conflicts by considering what Jesus would do, we are church. When we imbue our teaching of science, math, literature, social studies and the arts with our Catholic Graduate Expectations, we are church.

Not for one second would I ever believe we have been abandoned by the Holy Spirit. We are an “integral and living component of Catholic Church life in our province.” Are we perfect? No, but, thank God, Christ came to call sinners. Without our Catholic schools I believe the Catholic Church in Ontario would be a much poorer place with a bleak and limited future.

Teri Evangelista
Catholic teacher
Uxbridge, Ont.

Criticism simplistic

In her June 24 letter, “Not so moderate ,” Brigid Elson found my review of Tariq Ramadan’s book In the Footsteps of the Prophet (May 27) to have been in her words, “naive and ignorant.” She states that I have been “taken in” by Ramadan. Allow me to point out that I was commissioned to write a review of Ramadan’s book, not of Ramadan. Elson does not even address the contents of the book.

The idea that “Google has spoken, the case is closed” is simplistic. Having researched the matter prior to writing my review, research which included personal consultation with experts on Islam and the Middle East, I can assure readers that the controversy over Tariq Ramadan is far more subtle than a mere Internet search might suggest. For example, many of his critics are French secularists who probably dislike Catholicism as much as Islam.

Nowhere in my review did I claim that Ramadan is a “moderate” (an imprecise term if there ever was one, anyway). He is a believing Muslim trying to come to grips with the place of Islam in the modern world. In that respect, his book remains valuable.

Fr. Thomas Dowd
Montreal, Que.

They’re still out there

I am responding to Fr. Scott Lewis’ June 24 article, “John the Baptist was singled out for greatness .” Fr. Lewis mentions that “The Messianic status and the supporting role of John the Baptist took years to develop and take hold, and for many years some still followed John.”

Actually, there still is a Middle Eastern religion that venerates St. John the Baptist as its prophet. It is called Mandeanism and has only about 50,000 adherents today (less than Zoroastrianism).

Nonetheless it has managed to endure right down to this very day.

Carolyn A. Barratt
Thornhill, Ont.

Workers unite

I was intrigued by Michael Swan’s June 10 article “Faith in Public Life. ” In it the various faith groups decried the waning influence they experience in the halls of political power. It is obvious from the article that the faith communities are managed by the system as an interest group with little or no meaningful clout or support.

What the good people at this gathering seem to have forgotten is that, in recent history, a group of shipyard workers in Gdansk, Poland, with their protest, stirred the imagination of a people and brought to its knees a regime that had lost the moral right to govern.

As one who is deeply concerned about the many social justice issues facing our nation, I do not expect a worthwhile action that will affect government policies from our Catholic hierarchy, nor from our clergy and not from the elite in our parishes. Such action can and must come from our many Catholic working men and women, that is, Catholic labour in solidarity with working men and women from other faith communities.

Such a labour movement must advance a manifesto to our political parties and it must include but not be limited to the following: a living wage, universal day care, universal health, dental and pharma care, aboriginal families must enjoy equal standards in all facets of living conditions and our wealthy nation should live up to its international commitments.

Such a manifesto presented to our political parties with a guarantee of our votes in support of the party prepared to implement these just demands should positively affect our nation.

Herman H. Evertman
Pickering, Ont.

Architectural travesty

I read with great interest John Bentley Mays’ rather approving assessment of the recent “crystal” cube-like renovations to the Royal Ontario Museum in the June 17 issue. I must respectfully disagree, and can only observe that this travesty of modern architecture simply makes it look as if God dumped his drink on my museum. Money, apparently, can’t buy taste.

Allan Scott
Toronto, Ont.

Thanks to Register

I have been receiving The Catholic Register for many, many years and appreciate receiving it regularly.

You are certainly helping us to keep up-to-date with our church, and helping us help our parishioners to also keep up-to-date.

Thanks to you and to many others who work with you.

Sr. Agnes Sutherland
Fort Smith, NWT

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