Readers Speak Out: December 9, 2018

Too much intrusion

Re: Lay chaplains (Letter to the Editor, Dec. 2):

There are two aspects of Mr. Klaassen’s letter which deserve comment. The first is his suggestion for lay chaplains is in direct contradiction of the Code of Canon Law c.564: “A chaplain is a priest to whom is entrusted in a stable manner the pastoral care . . .

The second addresses his statement: “But the military chaplaincy ought to be civilian.” Submitting to this contradiction to the Church’s authority would be a weakening of the Church’s authority. There is far too much of that intrusion into and against the Church already, isn’t there?

David A. Hogg

Scarborough, Ont.

Hail to the chief

For a moment, I thought I was reading the talking points of vitriolic mainstream media and their denigrating claptrap, but shockingly it was The Catholic Register’s diatribe against U.S. President Donald Trump by Robert Brehl.

As a reporter, it would behove Brehl to pay heed to Earl Nightingale’s advice, “When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself.” 

Robert Knight of the Washington Post, which is not often complimentary about Trump, gives a lengthy list of the President’s accomplishments in his article “Giving Trump’s accomplishments their due,” accomplishments which Christians, and Catholics in particular, should be grateful for and which Brehl and other naysayers seem blatantly ignorant of. 

Knight lists about 20 of Trump’s feats although he said there were many more, and juxtaposed those to Hillary Clinton’s “likely outcomes” had she been elected, some of which are definitely anti-Christian and anti-Catholic.

I suggest that Mr. Brehl be more assiduous in his research and more balanced in his writing.

Donald J. Raper,

Windsor, Ont.

Accomplishments

Calling Donald Trump an “ugly American” and a “moron” and suggesting he has no moral values is sadly to be expected from the mainstream media nowadays, but not from a Catholic newspaper. 

With a little more research, Mr. Brehl would find that Trump has actually accomplished a lot of good in his first two years as president, even in the face of so much opposition and blind hatred. This is not only in terms of the economy, which Brehl downplays, but also in defending religious freedom and the rights of the unborn.  

That is  a lot more than can be said of our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a so-called Catholic.

Judy Pucher,

Toronto 

Loss for words

I just finished reading Robert Brehl’s rant about the President of the United States. I am almost at a loss for words, but I have some left, which I intend to lay on you, but respectfully.

I did not think, in my many dreams, that I would be reading such an article in a Catholic periodical. Does no one read these articles before they go to print? 

Perhaps I am behind the times, given my age, but the article was so bent and hate-filled that I had to re-check what newspaper I was actually reading. 

I would have thought that you might have checked the veracity of his many besmirching comments about the President of the United States. And to quote  Neil Young as a source of information on any topic shows, to me, the depth of his journalistic endeavours. Also, to think that it was okay for Jim Acosta to misbehave at a press conference (and I did watch and listen to it) and then defend such a thing, well it goes beyond the pale.

To say that I was disappointed is not really sufficient. Appalled is a better fit. 

Fran Nyssen,

Dorchester, Ont.

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