Readers Speak Out: Trump bashing, shifting values, the Church is not mean (January 3, 2019)

Trump bashers

What is happening to The Catholic Register? It used to report about Catholic Canadian values. Now it consistently bashes Donald Trump. Trump is not perfect, but which politician is? However, he is pro-life. Because of his pro-life belief, the tide may be turning in the United States. Millions of children can be saved.

On the other hand, in Canada the situation is dark. Abortion goes on perpetrated by Justin Trudeau, not only in Canada but in the whole world. Why is The Register not writing about this? When will we see Trudeau bashing?

John Dolik,

Toronto 

Shifting values?

Two articles in The Catholic Register (“Persecution hits close to home” and “Reform begins with an open conversation”) suggest some parishes are employing, or have as members, practising homosexuals, which would seem to be affirmation of a homosexual lifestyle. 

However, both the Old and New Testaments contain passages which clearly state that homosexual acts are sinful. (My own sins are also clearly identified). 

Perhaps these parishes are reaching out to practising homosexuals “in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:25-26). I hope so. But I am afraid the Church is starting to believe what the secular world constantly tells us, namely that homosexual practice isn’t a sin and we should just be accepting and inclusive.  

A Church that preaches openness and inclusivity for anyone who wishes to join the congregation but neither addresses the consequences of unrepented sin, nor points to the cross of Christ as the only means of forgiveness and salvation, has lost sight of its purpose.

Sandra Waller,

Niagara Falls, Ont.

Church not mean

The issue of homosexuality and the Church has become a frequent theme. Glen Argan’s recent column focused on a Catholic woman whose adult children have left the Church over the dismissal of their parish’s pastoral associate, who lives in a homosexual relationship. These children described the Church as “mean.” 

Argan concludes that the Church needs reform to replace “clericalism” and address “doctrinal orthodoxy” in an effort to alleviate the suffering of the “abused and excluded.” 

If “meanness” is the reason kids are giving for leaving the Church, it has nothing to do with Church doctrine. Rather, it has everything to do with how poorly we explain Church doctrine to our kids. 

We have no right to judge those in the Communion line and whether they are worthy of the sacrament. Our duty is to ensure that we ourselves are worthy of it, by using the sacrament of Confession to help us conform to the truths of the Church, not the other way around. If we refuse to live those  truths, for any reason, then the problem is ours. This does not make the Church “mean.”

Mario Loreto,

Toronto

Sad incident

The Covington Catholic High School students did nothing wrong except for this: they attended a pro-life march, they are mostly white, they wore MAGA hats and they attend a Catholic school. Had the students been gay, black, Indigenous or Muslim, the biased and politically driven reporting would have been completely different. 

The controlled behaviour of the students, especially Nick Sandmann, under the stressful circumstances should make any parent, school or nation proud.

Why wasn’t the criticism directed at Nathan Phillips and the Hebrew Israelites who were largely responsible for the encounter? 

This incident shows Christians have a lot of work to do if they want a place in the public square. 

Lou Iacobelli, 

Toronto