Choices Are Not Perfect

Dear Editor: As a clinician involved in the treatment of chemical addictions, I was happy to se that, in his column on medical ethics (Aug. 9), Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk was concerned about the plight of addicts and expressed a desire to see addicts rehabilitated. This concern and desire I share. I do not share his conclusions about programs that provide the possibility of a clinically sterile injection of illegal drugs. He suggests that the defense of these programs (penned by an unnamed priest) rests on an assumption that addicts have no free will. An addict who enters a clinically sterile program makes a free will choice to do so. The very existence of these programs is dependent on addicts choosing to avail themselves of them by the good use of their free will.

Addiction is characterized by denial (among other things). The denial is a failure to see and address the debilitating effects of the addiction. An addict who chooses to enter a clinically sterile injection program has come to recognize the dangerous effects of injecting oneself with needles probably contaminated and likely to contaminate others. In this he ceases to deny at least some of the negative consequences of his addiction and chooses to reduce some risk of harm to self and others. It is not an end to all denial but it is an end to some denial. It is not a perfect choice but it is a choice to turn away from some evil. It may not be the choice that I would wish the addict to make and is clearly not the choice that Father Pacholczyk would have one make. But I believe that choices to turn away from evil, even when limited, should be supported and the existence of clinically sterile injection programs afford the addict an opportunity to make a better choice.

Father Thomas M. Haggerty, LCSW
Park Slope

What About Others’ Rights?

Dear Editor: Whenever the topic of abortion comes up, the first thing we hear is the woman’s right. What about the right of the baby in the womb? Doesn’t she or he have a right? Also what about the right of the man who fosters a child? Doesn’t he have some right?
Lest we forget, there is God’s right that we obey His word about the children. “Suffer the little ones to come unto me for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”

Michael T. Tortora
Ozone Park

Joyce’s Transformations

Dear Editor: This is a reply to Philip Lehpamer’s letter “Philosophical Materialism” (July 12).

Yes, James Joyce’s works are autobiographical. He is the sensitive altar boy in the first three “Dubliners” stories “of my childhood” who becomes the brilliant Jesuit high school student in “A Portrait…” and later the adult Gabriel Conroy (“The Dead”) who suddenly realizes and honestly admits that “he had never felt like that himself towards any woman but he knew that such a feeling must be love.” People change; it’s called “grace.” “In my heart, I was penitent.”

Joyce’s final word picture of himself, let’s call it “The Portrait,’ is not the proud, condescending Stephen Dedalus “as a young man,” who in hindsight Joyce later makes fun of but rather Joyce’s protagonist in the humble, compassionate Leopold Bloom in “Ulysses” who expresses Joyce’s philosophy:

“Hatred. That’s not life for men and women… It’s the very opposite that is really life.

“What?, says Alf.

“Love, says Bloom, “I mean the opposite of hatred.”

Yes, initially Joyce exiled himself from his country, his Church, his city (Dublin) but in his heart he never left them.

Brother Ed Kent, OSF
Fresh Meadows

Editor’s note: Brother Ed Kent teaches courses about James Joyce at Fordham University, Lincoln Center.

Basic Cell of Society

Dear Editor: The family based on matrimony has been defined by the international community as the “basic cell of society,” and the DNA of society passes through it, which is why it is so important for some antisocial groups to destroy it, under the mistaken idea that it represents a violation of human freedom.

There are things that damage this DNA, like the devaluation of matrimony, or the destruction of its fruits, abortion. These are very serious problems, and a simple document, no matter how wise, will not be enough protection. When Zaccheus promised to give half his wealth to the poor, we have to assume that he was not just “opposed” to ill-begotten wealth, but that he planned to follow through. He was perceived as a public sinner, and his public penance proved his change of heart. What might have been a scandal, was turned into a source of edification.

Should we expect that public sinners who want to remain in good standing in the Church, do something similar, and when their conduct has lasted for years, a shorter, private penance, does not erase the scandal of their behavior, which can lead so many innocents to ignore the teaching of the Holy Spirit, through the Church? I believe that to ignore the scandal involved in the “personally opposed” position ends up being willful blindness.

Raul Alessandri
Belle Harbor

Sacrilege Demands Response

Dear Editor: The Diocese of St. Cloud, Minnesota, has urged Catholics to express their anger regarding Prof. Paul Z. Myers, University of Minnesota, who desecrated the host. (See Tablet, Aug. 9.)

Serious consideration should be given to this matter and should be discussed at all Masses. In addition, the dioceses throughout the country should express their outrage and urge that some type of disciplinary action be taken against this professor for commiting such an attack on the Holy Eucharist.

Marge Hiza
Bay Ridge

Priest Was a Hero to Youth

Dear Editor: What a coincidence! I was just thinking about the late Father John Bell and then I read Ed Wilkinson’s column (Aug. 2) about him.

He was a priest at the church and school I attended, Sacred Heart of Fort Greene. I was an altar boy from around 1937 to 1944. Father Bell made himself available to us altar boys. I knew nothing about his participation in the Olympic Games. But he was athletic.

I remember that during the summer months he would take a group of the boys, including myself, to Montauk Point, L.I., where we went swimming, fishing, and cooking the fish we caught.

I heard about his tragic death during a trip to Montauk which I did not attend. I attended his funeral.

I also remember a Father Collini but I thought his first name was Celsus.

Thanks for remembering. At least I now have his year of death.

Albert J. Berube
Fort Greene

Editor’s Note: Sorry, we referred to him as Father Chet Collini, the name used by his friends. He is the same Father Celsus Collini.

Good Old St. Lucy’s Church

Dear Editor: In The Tablet (Aug. 2), Gladys Cataldo in Albany wrote inquiring about St. Lucy’s Church on Kent Ave. in Brooklyn. My husband grew up there at 75 Franklin Ave. I too would like to know if there is anything published about this wonderful church.

My husband has passed away but he often talked about what nice memories he had about St. Lucy’s. As a matter of fact, my in-laws were married there and lived on Franklin Ave. all their lives.

I’m sure that Gladys Cataldo must remember someone in the family.

Pat Ingrassia
Breezy Point

Editor’s note: We will pass along your letter to Mrs. Cataldo.

Correction

In the obituary of Father Marcello Latona, we failed to list among his assignments his stay as an associate at Visitation BVM, Red Hook, 1976-79.