Photo of President-Elect

Dear Editor: My family and I have been subscribers to The Tablet for many years. Having moved to Long Island over 35 years ago and four years ago to New Jersey, I’ve maintained my support for The Tablet as one of the finest newspapers in the country. In fact, after reading the paper each week I share it with our pastor whose roots are, like mine, in the Diocese of Brooklyn.

With all the photos available in the public domain of President-elect Obama for you to select one which displays the campaign slogan “Change That We Need” on the front page of the paper sends the wrong message for the official newspaper of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens.  At the very least, you could have cropped the photo to remove the statement which suggests support for all of the president-elect’s positions.

Harold A. Jones
Pottersville, N.J.

Dear Editor: You stated that Catholics voted in good conscience for Obama. How can they have a good, clear conscience if they voted for a person who is for abortions? This is not what the Church teaches!

You honor and praise Obama by putting his picture in The Tablet. He is anti-Catholic because of his teachings and example. Shame on The Tablet!

H. Barnyck
Astoria

Should Have Been Tougher

Dear Editor: The coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign by The Tablet has been at best timid but your post-election observations are problematic and troublesome. 

I did not enjoy voting for John McCain but based on the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, the Magisterium, the Catechism and Canon Law, I could not possibly vote for President-elect Obama.  Carol Norris Greene’s “euphoria” (Nov. 15, Up Front and Personal) is naively misplaced since her winning candidate has never shown the slightest regard for the 14 million aborted African-American babies.

Father Harrington’s piece seems to reduce the campaign to a Left, Right, Conservative, Liberal axis.  It is for us, none of these; it is a moral issue.  My wife and I were active in Civil Rights in the ’60s and I assure you President-elect Obama’s victory gives us no joy. His career from the Illinois legislature to his brief time in the U.S. Senate reveals a man whose understanding of human value and dignity is quite appalling. He has made no secret of his support for the Freedom of Choice Act, which eliminates efforts to limit abortion while destroying what parental authority remains. Instead of alarming us to the moral dimensions of the campaign the issues were blurred and the issue of abortion trivialized. Father Harrington’s concern about his using the pulpit is not substantial. The Tablet is not the pulpit; it is a newspaper which purportedly reflects the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.  Similarly, the pulpit is to be the voice of Christ, clearly and fearlessly announcing the truth.

Finally, the editorial (Nov. 16) is a masterpiece of diplomacy which with all its ambiguity only adds to The Tablet’s failure to teach the Church’s position on this most serious issue. We will not have peace or justice or charity, so long as murder is the law of the land. We shall pray for President-elect Obama, but we will not celebrate.

Sean and Nancy Gibney
Jackson Heights

Editor’s Note: We’ve been slammed by both sides during the recent campaigns, but this is the first time we’ve ever been called “timid.”
Need a Stronger Position

Dear Editor: As the former Republican candidate for the N.Y.S. Assembly in the 49th AD, I would like to respond to the front page article (Nov. 15) by Patricia Zapor, “Catholic Vote Reflects National Totals.” While it is reassuring that “in a couple of battleground states that Obama won but where some bishops were particularly visible on the topic of how to vote, a majority of Catholics backed Republican Sen. John McCain,” it is also disheartening to see that only “some bishops” were visible on topics such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and embryonic stem-cell research.

These issues, as opposed to the economy, cannot and should not be negotiated by the Church, its bishops, and most of all by Catholics! In my own district, where the incumbent opponent supported abortion, and the use of public funding for abortion, I received the highest percentage of any Republican candidate running against an incumbent Democrat in all of Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan after strongly denouncing him in some of my literature. Maybe a stronger position of many more bishops on these issues would have caused different election results!

Lucretia Regina-Potter
Brooklyn

Upset by Students’ Choice

Dear Editor: I was upset to read the responses of the students attending a Catholic high school to the question: “If you could vote, who would you vote for in the presidential election? Why?”

Their top priority was the economy. It was not saving the life of the unborn. The majority said they would vote for Barack Obama, the most pro-abortion candidate. He promised Planned Parenthood that his first action as President would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. This pro-abortion legislation will go far beyond Roe v. Wade.
One of the students said, “We are a country of God.” How can we be if we continue to allow the killing of our innocent ones, the unborn?

Eileen Quigley
Charlotte, North Carolina

A Student’s Response

Dear Editor: I am writing this letter in regard to the letter from Anne and Peter Brennan of Bellerose who supported John McCain very strongly because of his beliefs. I am a junior at Bishop Ford H.S. and I am defending other students here who were labeled as “so-called” Catholics in a recent Readers’ Forum. They were criticized because they happened to be in favor of Barack Obama.

According to Anne and Peter, John McCain was the only one of the two candidates who shared their Catholic views. However, just because Barack Obama doesn’t have all the same beliefs as Catholics doesn’t mean John McCain does.

Jesus always preached that the poor and lowly come first. I don’t even remember reading anything in the Bible in which Jesus goes and tries to make life for the rich better. Jesus put the lowly first, like Obama. Barack Obama is a Democrat and is in favor of helping the unemployed and lower-class people. He is in favor of building more schools for children, creating more job opportunities for people and making tax cuts for the middle to lower classes. Obama is doing his best to make life for middle- to lower-class people a bit easier. McCain, on the other hand, is a Republican and is in favor of big business, meaning he’s focused on making the rich richer. He is in favor of taking money away from laborers and giving it to business owners, hoping the economy will become wealthier being in upper-class hands. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what Jesus did and definitely not what He asked us to do.

So you can make all the arguments you want about Obama not having all the same views as Catholics, but neither did McCain and I don’t think it’s right to criticize other people as being “so-called” Catholics.

Ryan Ross
Sunset Park

Weathering the Politicians

Dear Editor: The Church is made up of three parts: the Church Militant, the Church Suffering, and the Church Triumphant. Today’s Church Militant has in its members three distinct groups.

The first are the winter soldiers. No matter what it takes, they will be there.

Next, the fair-weather summer soldiers, who, seeing impediments to their lifestyles, leave for a climate of easier beliefs.

Last are those who, like our pro-choice politicians, will go over to the other side to gain the whole world.

Luckily, the winter soldiers have the knowledge that they may lose the battle but they will always win the war.

Joseph T. Klonowski
Middle Village