Front Page Causes Grief

Dear Editor: It has been a long time since any front page picture in any newspaper has grieved me as profoundly as did The Tablet’s Jan. 19 cover displaying a smiling President George Bush flanked by nuns before the Church of the Beatitudes. 

Mr. Bush’s visit to the site believed to be where Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” gave the creator of the disastrous war in Iraq and Afghanistan a chance to align himself with our beloved Prince of Peace in the war-torn Holy Land. Mr. Bush repeatedly disregarded the pleas of the late Pope John Paul II and numerous faith- based organizations to exercise diplomacy toward the just resolution of international conflicts.

Maureen Dowd, writing in The New York Times (Jan. 16) bitterly described the president’s method of peacemaking:  “Blessed is the peacemaker who comes bearing a $30 billion package of military aid for Israel and a $20 billion package of Humvees and guided bombs for the Arabs.”

It hurts to get greater truth from the national media than we do from our Catholic newspaper.

Sister Camille D’Arienzo, RSM
Glendale

Editor’s Note: Sister Camille is a past president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.
 

Dear Editor: It was impossible for me to read this week’s Tablet. The front page with that awful man’s (President George W. Bush) picture and the ones inside turned my stomach. What on Earth has he to do with the interest of the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens? Don’t you know he doesn’t represent the American people — he represents George W. Bush.

And I am not alone in this. He has continually ignored the people of this wonderful land and does what he pleases, no matter what. I am sick and tired of seeing his face and his smirk and his gesturing – like he’s God, like he’s King of America, whether we like it or not.

Please keep him out of The Tablet!

Elizabeth Kollmeier
College Point

Should We Fight Terrorists? 

Dear Editor: In response to Father Coman Brady’s letter to The Tablet, “War Never Again” (Jan. 12), he asked what do Catholics not understand about “Thou Shall Not Kill”?

It is correct to say that there should never be war in the world and man should live in peace with his brother. Good people have been denouncing war since time began, all to no avail.

Now what do the good people of America do when terrorists from a foreign country are determined to harm us? Should we turn the other cheek?

Not according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It states and I quote (#2308) “All citizens and all governments are obligated to work for the avoidance of war.”

However, “as long as the danger of war persists and there is no international authority with the necessary competence and power, governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self-defense, once all efforts have failed.”

#2309 mentions some restrictions — too many to mention in this letter — which lay out the rules of a “Just War” doctrine.

There are some people who think you can just wish to live in a free and peaceful world and it will happen. They must first remember that freedom is not free. Good people have had to fight the evil one in the world since the beginning of time. The devil is alive and well and will always advocate war. It is right there in the Bible and mentioned many times through the messages of Fatima. I suggest you read about them.

Our best defense to avoid war is to get down on our knees and pray the Rosary every day and hope that the heavens will grant us a period of peace. Unfortunately this is not going to happen.

Good people do not want war, especially the service men who are sent off to battle. So when Father Coman says that we shouldn’t glorify our service personnel or support the war, he does not make any sense.

He thinks we should instead feel more sympathy for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Why? Will this make the terrorists want to kill fewer of us?

Anthony Funaro
Howard Beach

Dear Editor: Father Coman Brady (Jan. 12) is wrong to say that our present pope and other recent popes have been pacifists. While recognizing that it is often embraced for innocent and misguided reasons, absolute pacifism is itself a moral wrong. This has been a consistent 2,000-year teaching of the Church. Protecting the innocent is a moral obligation, not an option. We can voluntarily accept martyrdom, but we cannot volunteer innocent lives to martyrdom. War is obviously a human tragedy of horrible proportions and everyone with a decent soul and mind would echo the fervent public prayer of Pope Paul VI’s famous address to the United Nations in 1965 that war would never occur again. But hope and prayer are raised to God who sometimes calls us to sacrifices that in our human fallen state we would not prefer.

In an interview on Vatican radio in 2001, Cardinal Ratzinger said, “We cannot ignore, in the greatest Christian tradition and in a world marked by sin, any evil aggression that threatens to destroy not only many values, many people, but the image of humanity itself. In this case, defending oneself and others is a duty.”
In his World Day of Peace message given on Jan. 24, 2002, which the press reduced to a standard banner headline, “The Pope today called for world peace.” Pope John Paul II reminded us that, “Terrorism is built on contempt for human life. For this reason, not only does it commit intolerable crimes, but because it resorts to terror as a political and military means, it is itself a true crime against humanity. There exists therefore a right to defend oneself against terrorism, a right which, as always, must be exercised with respect for moral and legal limits in the choice of ends and means.”

In just war doctrine, the Church sets forth the principles which it is the responsibility of government leaders to apply to specific cases (Catechism of the Catholic Church #2309). Saddam Hussein had for 11 years successfully defied international authority. He had used and was set upon further acquiring weapons of mass destruction, and he had publicly stated his support for the Sept. 11 attack and other terrorist actions. We can question prudential judgment and adequate exploration of alternative options in dire geopolitical circumstances by this nation or any nation and protest strongly if sincere. But it is wrong to reinvent what the Church teaches to satisfy a vision assumed to be morally superior.

Charles R. Castello
Jamaica Estates

Bright Christmas Thanks

Dear Editor: I hope you had an enjoyable and grace-filled Christmas and that the New Year brings blessings to you, your staff, and the contributors to The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Fund.

Here, my first Christmas at St. Barbara parish, the celebrations went off very well. Our beautiful church lends itself to such solemn liturgy and our bilingual choir and multi-cultural congregation remind us of the universality of the Church and our communion with all peoples.

Through your Bright Christmas Fund, you and your staff were certainly part of our celebrations and I, on my own behalf and on behalf of our struggling parish, want to thank the Bright Christmas Fund for the generous gift. I know that God will, in turn, be generous with you, your staff and those who contributed.

As we enter this new year, I can count on your prayers as I become more and more inserted into this challenging parish. Be assured that I will continue to remember you and your ministry in my personal prayer and in that of our community. May God bless you in every way!

Father Fulgencio Gutierrez
Pastor
St. Barbara’s Parish
Bushwick

How Old Was St. Joseph?

Dear Editor: In your Dec. 22 edition, Father Jean Pierre Ruiz wrote an interesting, but controversial article about St. Joseph. Interesting as far as the early life and times of his own father; controversial about the life of St. Joseph, his favorite saint.

He bases his writing on “early Christian writings” that did not warrant

documentation in the New Testament, as he put it, for good reason. The story relates to St. Joseph’s possible first marriage, children, second marriage, age, etc, etc., as though there was some credence to the facts. Although he states (twice) the early writings “speculates,” how many of your readers saw this word, or did not interpret it to mean “think about a certain subject.”

In this time of evangelization, what would my non-Catholic neighbors make of this article? How would I explain a walk from Israel to Egypt at age 90-plus? If the “writings” and this article are nothing more than spreading rumors and gossip, I’m extremely disappointed that The Tablet would allow such an article to be printed.

If the early writings weren’t good enough for the New Testament, why are they good enough for The Tablet?

We have enough dissension in the Catholic Church these days without adding fuel to the fire. Can we stick to the facts only, please, before we speak or put ink to paper?

Virginia Fornillo
Flushing