Letters to the Editor
Proposed marriage amendment is a worthy initiative
The letter titled “Marriage Amendment Misguided” [ May 18, 2006, page 5] moved me to counter two specific comments.
The first deals with the writers’ conclusion that, because of the Church’s mishandling/cover-up of the sexual abuse cases we should fear “understandable and undesirable backlash.” Sorry, but the faithful openly resented the Church’s concealment of the truth and the fact that Church hierarchy was knowingly impotent in dealing with the problem.
Confusing the Church’s authority and qualifications in the sanctification of marriage between a man and a woman with the aberrant human behavior by members of clergy is extreme, to say the least. Our faith tells us that the Church was destined to survive perfidious and insidious attacks from outsiders and from within, and history records the manifestations of that prediction. We should fear the break of trust and inaction more than the scandals that embarrass (but do not define) us.
The second states that “Catholics do not need law to proscribe or protect
marriage and there is no justification for defining it for others.” Such a l’aissez faire attitude is most harmful to the legitimacy of any law or rule, whether we are discussing marriage between a man and woman or driving while intoxicated.
Children raised in same-sex parent homes are, according to surveys, as well-adjusted to life as those raised in a heterosexual parent home. Life’s challenging demands lie ahead of the former, who as adults will suddenly realize that they were raised in an abnormal household with the practice of abnormal love.
I’m not talking about homophobia, but the reality that God’s plan of procreation through his magnificent design is impossible without conjugal love.
“Live and let live” may work well if you live on the moon, but we are earthlings with a desire to live in an orderly, lawful, natural environment. Same-sex marriage is neither normal nor natural, let alone lawful.
Peter J. Bruno
Bound Brook
Clearing the air about St. Rita’s misunderstood difficulties
Happy feast of St. Rita! I was delighted to see her picture in The Catholic Spirit [ May 18, 2006, page 15]. However, I would ask that if you use that write-up about St. Rita again, please omit the reference to her husband’s mistreatment. Recent research has discovered that a word was misread on masonry which prompted the belief that Rita had a difficult “husband.” In fact, after a restoration process, the word in question indicated that she had had a difficult “life.”
According to Augustinian Father Michael DiGregorio, rector of the Shrine of St. Rita in Philadelphia, “The misreading was of a poem on St. Rita’s coffin — the ‘violence’ once thought to be a reference to her husband was discovered to actually be a reference to the wound caused by the thorn she received at age 61.”
I came to know this during my years on staff at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine in Philadelphia. I’m sure Rita would be happy to have her Paulo’s reputation cleared after all these years!
St. Joseph Sister James Xavier
Our Lady of Mount Virgin Parish, Middlesex
Photo, comment did not belong in paper
I am offended by “She knows the right things to do” comment [“Ahr Apprentice: Grad makes it to show’s 11th episode,” May 18, page 24]. When did cleavage become appropriate in my diocesan newspaper? Really, where were the proofreaders? And the photographer’s judgment? And a graduate from Bishop Ahr High School? Talk about holding people accountable. How about looking in a mirror?
Ruth E. Dwyer
Metuchen
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Opinions expressed in this section are those of the letter writer and do not necessarily reflect Church teaching, or the position of The Catholic Spirit or the Diocese of Metuchen.
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law