Thanks for Humanae Vitae

Dear Editor: Thank you for your recent issue highlighting Pope Paul VI’s Encyclical Humanae Vitae. As a high school religion teacher, I was especially impressed with the excellent article written by Marilyn Santos. Her observations regarding youth and the issue of sexuality are right on target.

The task before parents, youth leaders, teachers, pastors, and all those involved with youth is a difficult one. Yet, I agree that young people are eager for the truth and a clear sense of moral direction. The present culture in which we live, along with the graces and wisdom we have gained in the 40 years since the encyclical first appeared, remind us how important it is that our young people, and all of us, are presented clearly with the truth.

While there are many fine resources to assist us in this regard, I would like to highlight the work of Pam Stenzel who has been a guest speaker for some diocesan and high school events. While it may not be easy to schedule her for a speaking engagement because demand for her presentations is so high, her video / DVD Sex Has a Price Tag delivers the message clearly and convincingly and is very well received by young people. It is a wonderful resource for parents, teachers, schools, and parishes and can be an excellent starting point for more discussion. You can visit www.pamstenzel.com for information on this and other resources which are available.

Once again, thank you for raising our awareness on these important issues. I hope that your paper will continue to present us with opportunities for growth and greater sharing of resources and ideas within the diocese.

Carol Bronnenkant
Ridgewood

Dear Editor: The June 12th issue of The Tablet was one of the best issues I have ever read, especially the Humanae Vitae article penned by Marilyn Santos.

Perhaps that’s due to the fact that I was a child of the 1960s, being a high school student at Mater Christi in Astoria.

Although I was not personally sexually active, I knew many who were and marijuana smoke often permeated the air, and the liberal ideology was attacking the minds of the youth regardless of their religion or lack thereof.

Yes, indeed, the pope penned the perfect document which was certainly needed at a time when loose morals were becoming the norm rather than the exception.

It is certainly appropriate that we revisit this encyclical today when out-of-wedlock children are called “love children” and babies of 17 are having babies whom they will be unable to care for.

Let us pray for a renewal in the Church and the world where morality is the rule rather than the exception.

Florence Guigliano
Jackson Heights

Save Catholic Schools

Dear Editor: As yet another sizable number of Catholic schools in this state closed their doors this June – never to open again – the importance of your May 10 editorial, “Putting Students First,” simply cannot be overestimated.

Richard E. Barnes, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference had it right when he said, as quoted in your editorial, “Credible media sources have acknowledged that lawmakers are clearly bowing to the interests of the state’s public school teachers’ unions, which also are responsible for the state’s refusal to grant tax relief to the parents of the 500,000 children in independent and religious schools. It is important for lawmakers and the public to keep in mind that the teachers’ unions do not represent the state’s children. Rather, they are trade associations, whose basic interests begin and end with the financial security of their own membership.”

For verification of this view, we need look no further than the words of Greg Weaver, president of the 3.2 million member National Education Association, who took issue with colleagues who would rather focus attention solely on their students and schools rather than enter the arena of politics so as to elect candidates who support public education and the NEA programs needed to dictate our future and the future of our nation. “We choose to ignore politics at our own peril,” he wrote. “Education decisions – from those made by local school boards to those made in state capitols and on Capitol Hill – rest in the hands of politicians.”

Here it is important to keep in mind that the future of our nation, as envisioned by Greg Weaver and his fellow unionists is a society first envisioned by Robert Owen, a wealthy British socialist reformer who came to the United States in 1825 for the avowed purpose of transforming this country into a religion-free collectivist society and that the legal authority for achieving this objective and for eliminating all forms of non-government schooling, according to the public educationalists, rests in an 1894 amendment to the state Constitution which holds that, “The legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free common schools wherein all the children of the state may be educated.”

Confronting a government program under which some unwilling citizens under color of law are forced to pay for the political agendas and political campaigns of a Soviet-style school system is by no means an easy task. But face the challenge we must if Catholic schools are to be saved. And that is why working to pass the Maltese-Larkin school property tax credit in the Freedom of Education Act (S3257) is a first step toward that goal; and that lending support and voting for public officials who support educational freedom is so important. And finally that is why the personal dedication of every believer in the restoration of education in this state is most crucial… and in a very large sense, this is really what putting our youthful students first is all about.

Edward P. Scharfenberger
Warwick, N.Y.

Her Favorite Teachers

Dear Editor: I grew up in Brooklyn and now live in Boston. I moved here many years ago after graduating from nursing school. I have been a neonatal nurse for 33 years. One of my brothers gives me as a Christmas gift every year, a subscription to The Tablet, which I really enjoy reading.

A few issues ago, you had pictures of Sisters celebrating Jubilees. I spotted a Sister of Saint Joseph that taught me at St. Brendan’s Diocesan H.S. in 1962, Sister Joan McAvoy (Sister Maria Columba). I have not seen her for many years but picked her right out. It brought back many fond memories of high school.

Sister Joan and so many others like her shaped my formative years. They were way ahead of their time back then. They were quiet, unassuming and taught us not just from books but by example. They taught us to respect ourselves and others, to play fair, to have fun and to live a good life.

Teachers are my unsung heroes. The top three are my brothers, Ed, Bob and Don, who teach at St. Francis Prep and Msgr. McClancy H.S. And next comes, Sister Maria Columba, who I personally want to thank for her years of service to our youth and to me and to let her know that one day I finally got “Math” and I owe it all to her. Everything I learned was not in kindergarten but in the hallowed halls on Avenue O.

Terry Kent O’Connor
Boston, Mass.

Future of Pro-Life Legislation

Dear Editor: A recent letter posed the difficulty faced by a pro-life Catholic who was also concerned about other important moral issues. I would like to help such voters cast their votes.

First, when Cardinal O’Connor took over the Archdiocese of New York, he raised the question of how Catholics could support those who make abortion possible.

This is because abortion, then and today – the struggle between life and death – is clearly the most important issue of our time and must be given precedence in our voting.

Never vote for anyone running for office who has a record of routinely voting for pro-death legislation unless he has publicly repented and repudiated his previous record. We must make allowances for conversion and repentance.

If we follow that policy, pro-abortion incumbents would start losing and support for pro-death legislation would start to dissipate. The more who lost, the faster it would become impossible to continue to enact pro-death, anti-life legislation and the more support we would get for advancing pro-life views.

I ask all Catholics to adopt this rule and finally give Cardinal O’Connor the action his question was intended to begin.

Edmond Farrell
Lynbrook, L.I.

Great Coverage of WYD

Dear Editor: I just wanted to compliment The Prayer Channel on its coverage of WYD 2008. It did an excellent job. It was so nice to see our Holy Father with all the young people. I was deeply touched by the reenactment of the Stations of the Cross. How well that was done!  

The Holy Father’s wise words and the music was something to always remember. These few days, seeing the Holy Father on TV brought joy and happiness to me. 

Janie Jurica
Maspeth