Readers Speak Out: December 30 – January 6, 2019

Blame the culture

I salute St. Michael’s College School for their deft handling of the sexual bullying scandal. The alacrity and transparency displayed should be used as a template by all Catholic institutions.

The criticism that appeared in the press is tendentious and should be ignored as the Catholic Church is always an appealing target for the secular press.

None of the reports that have appeared either in The Catholic Register or the secular press have mentioned, even indirectly, the traumatic effects this scandal has had on the parents of the accused and how their plans to provide the best education to their children have gone awry. 

But more important, none of the reports I read mentioned, even tangentially, the malevolent influence that our “God-is-dead” culture brought to bear on this sorry episode. It’s a culture to which the older generation has been the greatest contributors. 

In this nihilistic and iniquitous environment our impressionable teenagers have to live daily lives. And we wonder why teenagers behave the way they do?

What should really attract our wonder is that there haven’t been more incidents of this nature. In my opinion, that is due to the strong Catholic ethos that St. Michael’s has fostered.

J.E. Sequeira,

Pointe Claire, Que. 

Time to mourn

The standard response of the hierarchy is to apologize for the sexual abuses in the Church. It seems it is only about people, the victims and the community. Should it not be about God first, neighbour second? 

In confession, before absolution is received, contrition must first be expressed. And integral to true contrition is mourning, the disposition of the heart that is manifested in action even before it is verbalized in words or sounds. 

As a Church, we cannot mourn if we continue to deny and cover our eyes. The denials, cover ups, ambiguity of language and equivocations mean we, His Church, prefer to believe a lie rather than the truth, because we do not mourn. This is very painful. 

Rufino Ty,

Brampton, Ont.

Bad shepherds

We must be wary of critics who would reform the Church out of existence.

We know the Church has not betrayed us — bad shepherds have. They have robbed Catholics of their birthright and, in many cases, have closed the door to authentic healing.

In one of His hard sayings, Jesus warns it would be better to be drowned in the sea with a great millstone around the neck than be guilty of harming a child.

Ken Purcell,

Winnipeg, Man.

Run for office

No one is surprised Justin Trudeau changed his mind with respect to forcing summer jobs applicants to agree to abortion — he will lose every lawsuit filed against his former policy and he is trying to limit the fallout with an election in less than a year.

At the same time, Mary Wagner, a woman imprisoned many times for defending the rights of children in the womb, is out of jail at Christmas for the first time in many years and is wondering how to continue her fight against state-sponsored infanticide.

She should run for federal office, get elected, then ask whomever the prime minister is the relevant questions on this issue in the House of Commons.

As an MP, Wagner might be able to accomplish what a lot of politicians have refused to do.

Chris Soda,

Windsor, Ont.