Parents Part of Process

Dear Editor: Stefanie Gutierrez’s column (March 24) about the desperate need for prayer at abortion clinics and the many different people we encounter there in need of our help highlighted a situation we tend to shy away from.

I want to share with the readers excerpts from a letter that was sent (including the report) concerning the welfare of our children to the following Queens Assembly members within the last two weeks: Ellen Young, 22AD; Mark Weprin, 24AD; Roy I. Lancman, 25 AD; Ann-Margaret Carrozza, 26AD; and Jose R. Peralta, 39AD.

The report is dated Feb. 5, 2007 by Michael J. New, Ph.D., an assistant professor of political science at the University of Alabama, titled, Analyzing the Effect of State Legislation on the Incidence of Abortion Among Minors. It is an analysis of a comprehensive dataset of minor abortion rates from over 40 states over a span of 15 years that indicates that parental involvement legislation and other types of pro-life laws are correlated with reductions in the incidence of abortion among minors.

A set of natural experiments provides further evidence.  New’s independent report clearly states, “Regression results from this analysis suggest that parental involvement laws and public funding restrictions are effective in reducing the incidence of abortion among minors. Specifically, the passage of a parental involvement law correlates with a 16% decline in the minor abortion rate, and the passage of Medicaid funding restrictions correlates with a 23% decline in the minor abortion rate.”

The abortion industry in New York State has unlimited power when it comes to our teenage girls under 18. There is abortion-on-demand without parental consent and Medicaid will pay the bill. How can you require parental permission to dispense medication to children at school and then permit children to get secret abortions without notifying their parents?

Also, abortion clinics do not provide women with the necessary information to make an informed decision concerning their unborn child. The Family Protection Act, A03217 sponsored by Assemblyman Barra is intended to protect the minor’s health and welfare by requiring parental consent before a final determination can be made about an abortion. This protects the minor and gives the parents their proper responsibility on making a decision of this magnitude with their child’s welfare in mind. Parents need to be part of this process. Requiring abortion providers to disclose accurate information on the possible long-term effects of an abortion, and the alternatives available, is in the best interest of all women. This is standard practice in all other medical procedures.

Unfortunately, the “Family Protection Act” has a prior legislative history in 2004, 2005 and 2006 of not having the support of the Assembly to become law. This will continue to happen, if the voting public does not demand their Assembly member support and vote for this legislation.

Philip Heery
Flushing

Is This Art?

Dear Editor: As now reported, the artist Cosimo Cavallaro, who created, “My Sweet Lord,” which displays a six-foot naked Jesus made out of chocolate and which displays his genitals, has gotten offers for his statue to be exhibited elsewhere, since the plug was pulled here in Manhattan. 

I feel, like most Christians, that this work is an insult to Christians everywhere for it is a most nefarious and egregious act by the artist to portray our Lord in a less than artistic fashion. It borders on blasphemy, for what is the artist trying to say in his exhibit of “My Sweet Lord”?

I think Christians everywhere this exhibit is shown ought to protest it and keep it from being exhibited. For remember this, “Evil thrives when good people do nothing.”

Frederick R. Bedell Jr.
Bellerose

Catholic Call to Action

Dear Editor: I agree with Martha Caselli that we Catholics should take part in a call to action.  What most Christians do not know is that not only was there a painting of the Blessed Mother with dung on her (Brooklyn Museum), there was also a painting of the Last Supper with a black female Jesus who was naked with her chest exposed. (I am not offended by the artist using a black Jesus, but by the fact that it was a naked woman.) This was only put on television once and not in the papers because it would have been an affront to all Christians, not just Catholics. 

If we look at who supported the artist’s “rights,” we will find many current office holders. Why? Because we Christians allow those who dishonor our religion to be awarded with receiving our votes, buying their papers, and/or shopping in their stores. 

Meanwhile, the press attacks the Italian mayor who defended Our Lady and again we will allow it and just go on our merry way.   

But then Martha Caselli and I are only two people and unless many more unite and let the press and our leaders know that we will not allow it any longer, nothing will ever be accomplished. How many of you wrote to Channel Seven regarding “The View”?

Frances Ruocco
Brooklyn

Help Wanted in Brownsville

Dear Editor: After five years of faithful volunteer service, Sister Margaret Quinlivan, C.S.J., will be leaving Our Lady of the Presentation parish, Brownsville, for personal reasons. She has put together a wonderful religious education program here and we will miss her dedication and generous spirit.

On page 25 of The Tablet (March 31), there was an advertisement for a Director of Religious Education in Chappaqua. I share their need but cannot afford to advertise nor offer a “highly competitive salary” nor “generous resources.” What I can offer is a group of about 150 alive, inquisitive and highly motivated children with a desire to learn about Jesus and a staff of loving and dedicated certified volunteers who provide their generous human resources to share their faith with the children.
If you or your readers know of anyone interested in this part-time position, please ask them to give me a call at 718-345-2604.

I will remember all of you and yours at the altar on Easter.
A Blessed Easter!

Msgr. Joseph Nugent
Brownsville

Editor’s Note: Msgr. Nugent is the pastor of Our Lady of the Presentation parish, Brownsville.

The Scanlan Years 

Dear Editor: I grew up on a mainly Irish Catholic block in Bedford-Stuyvesant during the 1940s and 1950s. My neighbors were hard-working and religious but they did not always have very neighborly ideas. I had on-and-off friendships with my Catholic peers. They went to Catholic schools. As a Jew, I went to public school. All well and good except my sometime friends could also sometimes be bigoted and anti-Semitic. For reasons I didn’t fully comprehend at the time what seemed to be friendly relations one day turned sour and hostile the next.

Now, many years later, I turn to The Tablet’s website and discover this rather too breezy description of the paper during Editor Patrick F. Scanlan’s years:
“By its second anniversary, The Tablet’s editorial direction was firmly in the hands of Patrick Scanlan, who would be the longest-running editor of the paper, serving for 50 years. During the Scanlan years, the paper continued to advocate for morality, printing the Legion of Decency pledge, and taking on causes including the Spanish Civil War and support for Charles Coughlin (the ‘radio priest’) and support of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who saw communism as a significant threat.”

For many of Scanlan’s years as editor, communism was a core issue of debate. For decades, the paper warned against the tactics of the Soviet Union and declared that “the present totalitarian regime in Soviet Russia is anti-religious and the greatest menace to the four freedoms in the world today” (from a front page editorial in October 1944). The Tablet opposed the formation of the United Nations, was in favor of Franco, and was critical of Franklin Roosevelt’s post-war rebuilding plan.

What I don’t see here is any regret for the views The Tablet then espoused – no regret for supporting Franco, Coughlin, and McCarthy.

My peers, who I wanted to like, would probably have been more friendly, more tolerant, more open if their parents hadn’t passed on Coughlin’s poison. They would have been more open to the world and world opinion if they hadn’t supported Franco. 

Clerical fascism is an ugly term but it has about it a certain precision. I wouldn’t call myself a victim of anything and as a historian I cannot complain about history.  What is done, is done. But it seems to me The Tablet could at least express some regret for the bigotry it perpetrated during the Scanlan years. This would be a valuable lesson for its current readers – and for the entire community.

Alan Wallach

All Elections Are Important

Dear Editor: A couple of weeks ago I sent an e-mail regarding abortion to The Tablet, and it was printed in the Readers’ Forum. In my e-mail I indicated that all elections are important and that Catholics should pay attention to the issues and vote as we see fit. I pointed out that little was done on our part to put a stop to Eliot Spitzer and his pro-abortion policies.

This past week Governor Spitzer indicated that Roe v. Wade was under attack and indicated that he wanted to expand “abortion rights.” He specifically urged the support of legislation legalizing “Plan B” for over the counter availability.

As you can see from this item, every election can be important, not just presidential elections. All Catholics should pay attention to their State Senate and Assembly races and try to ascertain the candidates’ position on this important issue.

I know in the November election my State Senator Serf Maltese barely survived a challenge, luckily for the pro-lifers. We need every vote we can get to override positions that are or will be proposed by Governor Eliot Spitzer.

I know the Editor of The Tablet commented on how they are not allowed to dabble in politics and must walk a fine line. I’m just trying to keep people informed and tell them, don’t just look at the 2008 presidential election, pay attention to the November 2007 elections. They may help make a difference.

Thomas Murawski
Glendale