Letters to the Editor

by Father John McCloskey

Celibate and Happy

When I was ordained to the priesthood 12 years ago, I was under the impression that I was voluntarily embracing apostolic celibacy for the kingdom of God. The Rev. Paul Dinter informs me in "Celibacy and Its Discontents" (Op-Ed, May 6) that, on the contrary, I was forced into it. This is news to me and to tens of thousands of other well-adjusted and happily functioning priests in America.

Gay Marriage

David Brooks tells us: "We shouldn't just allow gay marriage. We should insist on gay marriage" (Op-Ed, Nov. 22).

If Mr. Brooks is really concerned about marital fidelity, he would do better to advocate tougher divorce laws and tax breaks for families with children rather than redefining what marriage has always been throughout history: a sacred bond between a man and a woman recognized by either church or state or both.

Abuse Scandal

Margaret O'Brien Steinfels writes (Op-Ed, Oct. 22), "It is no surprise that Vatican officials have put the United States Catholic bishops' zero-tolerance policy on hold."

The church is deeply concerned about the heinous crimes of sexual abuse of minors that have been committed by a small percentage of Catholic priests. The laity continues to be heard on this issue loud and clear and rightfully so.

At the same time, as an institution, the church is careful not to betray divine principles. The governance of the church has been entrusted to the bishops as successors of the apostles, not to the laity. The priesthood, faithful to church teachings, is there to serve the laity both sacramentally and through preaching.

If the American bishops are being rejected by the Vatican, why are they not saying so?

Let Fathers Be Fathers

The gift of apostolic celibacy in the priesthood in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church goes back to its apostolic origins, and the married clergy have always been a pastoral exception. The church has always had the priests its needs through the ebbs and flows of its growth without recourse to changing the infallible teaching on the priesthood's being male or the millennial-old Latin tradition of apostolic celibacy, which has produced such great saints throughout its history. The church in the world is indeed undergoing a "thoroughgoing transformation," with growth by the tens of millions in Africa and Asia who don't worry about the ordination of women or married priests and adhere to traditional teaching. The church in Europe and the United States may indeed be in "irreversible decline" unless they return to loyalty to perennial church teachings on marriage and sexuality.

How to Deal with Bad Priests

It is worth reminding readers, in light of Paul Steidler and Mark Serrano's column "The Vatican's Day of Shame" (OP-ED, Thursday) that the Roman Catholic Church exists to forgive sin and to promote holiness.

There is nothing more abhorrent to the eyes of Christ and his church than the sexual abuse of children by priests. The church is doing everything in its power to make sure it never happens again and to offer its healing ministries to both victims and their families. There are no excuses, and the entire priesthood from bishops on down, will have to continue to do penance for these heinous crimes.

At the same time, the church must make sure that the due process of he law, both civil and canonical, is has been a miniscule proportion of priests and other clergy who have been guilty of such conduct over the past 40 years.

I would hope that all concerned, not only in the Catholic Church but in many sectors of society where these type of crimes are so sadly frequent, would be interested above all in identifying the causes and finding solutions rather in imputing bad will to those who are honestly seeking to deal with this problem.

The Church Is Made Up of Fallible People

Mr. Dreher, as a convert to the Catholic Church, does not seem to realize that the church in this world is made up of 100% fallible sinners from the Pope on down. He church exists to forgive our sins and to give us the supernatural help to become saints. The Holy Father (John Paul II) has repeatedly spoken about strongly against and about the minuscule proportion of Catholic bishops and priests in this disgusting matter of sexual abuse in the US. The remedies are already being put into effect. I would hope that Mr. Dreher would be more patient in terms of the remedy. The church has a pretty good track record. Check in again in about another thousand years.

Christians Who Seek Unity

An Aug. 29 Week in Review article asks whether the agreement for full communion between the Lutheran and Episcopal Church in the united States points to a new era of formal Christian cooperation in the 21st century.

The agreement rather may present a beginning to the end of the 500-year history of the Reformation. These churches are merging primarily for two reasons: the drop in attendance at the two denominations' church services over the last several decades and the admission that church teachings don't really matter.

Increasingly, Christians who seek unity will be looking no for more mergers but rather to enter into full communion with a church that possesses a bi-millennial history, a coherent and unchanging body of dogmatic and moral teaching, and most importantly, a living authority.

Catholics, Faithful, and Former

To the Editor:

Re: "Is the Pope Catholic?" by Bill Keller (column, May 4):

It has come to this. Pope john Paul II, a man widely acknowledged as having played a critical role in the demise of the Communist empire, is now compared to Leonid I. Brezhnev. Mr. Keller, a self-pronounced " collapsed Catholic" who claims no voice in whom the church ordains or how it prays or what it chooses to call a sin, goes ahead and does precisely that.

He "refers to a dwindling population of lode Catholic conservatives who say, in effect, the pope's the man, love it, or leave it." What he ignores are hundreds of thousands of young Americans who flocked to see and pray with the Pope in his various trips to the United States, and who will again be in force in Toronto in July.

While we pray that our prodigal children return to the faith in all that the Catholic Church teaches, we respect their freedom to go elsewhere.

Catholic Church Can't Follow Fashion in Morals.

I reply as an organizer of the 20th anniversary celebration of the papal encyclical " Humanae Vitae" held at Princeton University in 1988, to " Wrong about Sex, Absolutely' by Thomas C. Fox (Op-Ed, July 16)

As to Mr. Fox's affirmation of the Roman Catholic's "distaste for sex": on the contrary the church has constantly idealized sex in its proper place, indeed raising it to the level of a sacrament. I would challenge him to produce anything supportive of his view in Scripture or Catholic tradition and teaching. I believe, that, unfortunately, he may have mistaken sex for lust, a view not uncommon in this day.

It appears that Mr. Fox holds that the basis for the church's doctrinal teaching should be scientific opinion polls of Catholic practice and belief. If that were the standard, along with birth control, how long does Mr. Fox believe that the church's strictures on divorce, abortion, adultery, or promiscuity would last? Or is that precisely the point. Perhaps then the church could move on to sociological surveys of the relevance to the Catholic faithful of the holy Trinity, the Redemption, and the Resurrection, and change its teaching accordingly.

I agree with Mr. Fox " the Catholic crisis is more than pedophilia." Above all the crisis consists in a sizeable number of Catholics who do not accept all the authoritative teachings of the church on faith and morals.

With the precipitous membership decline in mainline Protestant denominations, partly due to the abandonment of normative moral teachings, there should be plenty of room for disaffected Catholics to move to churches where they feel more comfortable.

Why Fight Battles That Can Never Be Won?

In reference o the Nov. 21 Page One story by Rich Miller, a little clarification is in order. There is no possibility of women ever being ordained deacons. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (you can pick it up at your local bookstore in paperback) tells us in Point 1598 that" The Church confers the sacrament of Holy Orders only on baptized men (viri), whose suitability for the exercise of ministry has been duly recognized. Church authority alone has the responsibility and the right to call someone to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders."

Deacons, along with bishops and priests, are those who have received the sacraments of Holy orders." The Pope's recent declaration on the infallible character of this teaching leaves no room for doubt, or dissent, for faithful Catholics.

Why fight battles that can never be won? Ms. Hartmann (cited in the article) and those in agreement with here should realize that the sacrament of Holy Orders is instituted for service and not power, and that the greatest in the kingdom of heaven are not the ministers but the saints.