Our Priests, Our Heroes

Dear Editor: Being at the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday morning at St. James Cathedral was wonderful. It was a special Mass for everyone because Holy Thursday is the birthday of the priesthood. I recall hundreds of priests in attendance and when the consecration took place, you felt the presence of God in these men. God bless all priests.

God blesses us through them. He performs miracles through the changing of the bread and wine to the body and blood of Jesus. When you are absolved after going to confession, you are absolved by the hand representing God.

Bishop DiMarzio stressed that priests are heroes. They perform the work of God selflessly and like Father Timothy Hirten did, they minister to troops in Iraq.

Father Hirten will be very happy to see Our Holy Father when he comes here. Can you believe it? In a few weeks, the hero Pope Benedict XVI will represent Jesus Christ in our Diocese. A hero takes someone away from danger. Thank you, Pope Benedict and Bishop DiMarzio for showing us the way to salvation.

Michael Lucci
Brooklyn

Tablet Article Causes a Buzz

Dear Editor: I must tell you that Stefanie Gutierrez’s piece on the Queens College Newman Apostolate has generated an excellent “campus buzz.”

Many copies were Xeroxed for distribution at the Newman Center.

In addition, Carol and I have received nice phone calls from friends and neighbors. After Mass yesterday, a parishioner, who is a judge, stopped me and said that Sister Mary Ross, C.S.J. (who was a Newman chaplain and is now still a nun and a Legal Aid Society Attorney),  has appeared before him many times.

Joseph R. Brostek
Flushing

Editor’s Note: Joseph R. Brostek is the executive director of events at Queens College.

How to Achieve Peace

Dear Editor: Mary Anne Muller was right to point out the complexity of the reasons for personal pacifism in the early Church. The aversion for even a hint of Emperor worship made military service problematic at the time.  Because of this, at present, there is no conclusive evidence that absolute pacifism was urged upon all Catholics. 

Good people can disagree about President George Bush and the war in Iraq.  While I admire those who put personal pacifism into practice, I also believe absolute pacifism is intrinsically evil. 

I am basically a man of peace.  However, if my wife and children are physically attacked I know where my responsibility lies. 

Absolute pacifism is also a dangerous stance.  I am sure that Bishop Pierre Cauchon, that political opportunist, would love to have had absolute pacifists on his staff as he set out in 1431 to have Joan of Arc (a canonized teen-age saint who led French armies into victorious battle) condemned and burnt at the stake. 

I also find that some of the absolute pacifists in Pax Christi are very selective in their indignation and find themselves quite often standing with the “‘blame America first’ crowd.”  They seem to be blind to atrocities on the other side.

When I saw the “notorious” picture of Bush and the habited nuns together, I was delighted. They all seemed to have a glow about them as do all good people when they are trying to do God’s will as they see it. It did seem to offend some and The Tablet was right to print letters on both sides of the issue. But what are we to do about this division among Catholics? Perhaps we should send a delegation to the president to tell him to stop spending happy times with nuns in habits? 

     
Deacon John P. Coffey
Brooklyn

Dear Editor: I feel compelled to comment, with a Christian respect for human rights and for life itself, on the ongoing “Bush Debate” on your pages.

The president all but ignored Israel’s inhuman treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank during his visit. The horror of Palestinian life in these two regions is being funded with billions of our tax dollars being given to Israel as military aid each year. In turn Israel dismisses world opinion of their actions and absolutely ignores the empty “official American Policy” by continually expanding their settlement of land that was given by the UN to the Palestinians.

They bulldoze Palestinian homes, take away all their freedom of movement, and cut off all but the barest minimum of food, drugs, fuel and electricity, and other supplies so sorely needed to sustain every day life, which they then call “humanitarian aid.” Worst of all, in response to the obviously weak missiles being fired by Hamas militants from Gaza into Israel, Israel strikes back at the entire Palestinian population, killing many dozens of civilian women and children for each Israeli that is killed, using the greatest military might of any nation in the Middle East, almost all funded with American dollars! 

President Bush is the one person in the entire world with the power to stop this horrible genocide in an instant, by simply cutting off this massive “military aid” to Israel until they show the same respect for human life that is preached by the Catholic and Jewish religions alike! Until then, his claim to want to bring peace to that region is absolutely hollow!

Jim S.
Brooklyn

Emerging Unity in Far Rockaway

Dear Editor: A wonderful, gloriously spiritual Stations of the Cross street procession took place on Good Friday from St. Gertrude Church, at 38th St. and Beach Channel Drive, to St. Mary Star of the Sea Church, at New Haven Ave.

It was a humbling experience to see hundreds of people actively participate in prayer and song. To walk in the way of the Cross, much like our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ might have done, was vividly evident by so many of us.

What a blessing it is to be a parishioner of our merging parishes, where all the people are living a faith of the spirit of Easter.

Joanne Murray
Far Rockaway

Poor Image of the Savior?

Dear Editor: Let me begin with a confession of a prejudice. I hate bad religious art. The weak, pale, soft and sweet, somewhat effeminate Jesus on the cover of The Tablet (March 22) is a case in point. Surely the ineffectual appearing person pictured here could not have inspired the rough-hewn apostles and the other women and men who nurtured the early Church. If I were a non-Christian seeing that cover with its caption, “He Is Risen!,” my reaction might have been, “Who cares?”

 Mary Boyd
Bayside

Confession as a Turning Point

Dear Editor: At the beginning of Lent, at Regina Pacis in Bensonhurst, the priests stayed in church almost all day to hear confessions. The response has been very positive. Droves of people came to confess, many of whom have not gone to confession for years. This is a real turning point in their lives and, hopefully, in the life of the parish.

Praise the Lord.

Father Vincentius Do
Bensonhurst

Change Readings About Jews

Dear Editor: In the March 15 issue, Bishop DiMarzio, wrote of reconciliation with the Jews. Yet this past Sunday’s reading of Our Lord’s death was taken from Matthew’s Gospel. This reading has the unfortunate passage wherein the mob responds to Pilate’s hand washing with “His blood be on us and our children.” 

More than any other statement or action, this served as a provocation for centuries of discrimination, marginalization, pogroms, and genocide. Those that perpetrated these horrors (mostly Christian) saw the Jewish people and their descendants as cursed by God and used that spurious belief as justification. 

Surely, if the Pope could update the Tridentine prayer for the Jews in the Prayer of the Faithful then he could see about omitting this phrase from the Palm Sunday and Good Friday readings. Or better still omit St. Matthew’s version altogether around this time of year.   

Colleen Herzberg
Bay Ridge

  
Tablet Shares Good Works

Dear Editor: The Tablet’s profile (March 22) regarding our volunteer job project was tremendous. Marie Elena Giossi should be congratulated on putting together an excellent article.

On behalf of the parents, staff and students of the Laboure Program, I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to share our experiences with our faith community and for putting forth the needs and goals of our program.

William E. Slow
Brooklyn

Editor’s Note: William E. Slow is the diocesan Associate Superintendent for Special Education.