Readers Speak Out: April 7, 2019

Nigeria’s Christians

Most people know about the massacre that occurred in two mosques in New Zealand, where 50 Muslim worshippers were murdered.

Of course, we must condemn this evil act without question. 

But another reality must also be expressed. Why the double standard by Western elites and the mainstream media? The New Zealand massacre was everywhere in the media, but little or nothing was reported when in Nigeria some 130 Christians were recently killed by Fulani Muslims.

The suffering, persecuted and killed are our brothers and sisters in the faith. Since they cannot speak for themselves, we are called to be a witness for them. 

Lou Iacobelli,

Toronto 

Resist changes

Re: Cardinal calls for Church shakeup (Mar. 24): 

Certain vocal German bishops are pressuring an apparently receptive Vatican to change Church teachings on homosexual relations, ordination of women, priestly celibacy and Communion for people in adulterous relationships in ways which are heretical, impossible to implement under the teachings of Christ and the apostles and damaging to the Church. Furthermore, they are proposing to implement these changes in Germany through an equally flawed “synodal” process which allows each part of the Church to go its own way. 

These changes highlight the urgent need for resistance and for all of us to pray to St. Michael the Archangel to protect the Catholic Church and save Germany.

John J.F. Killackey,

Mississauga, Ont.

Historical inaccuracy

Re: Shedding Light on Pius’s Wartime Papacy (Mar. 17): 

It was extremely hurtful for the members of our community to read about the expulsion of Rome’s Jews to “the Polish concentration camps.” This term is historically incorrect and should never be used as there were no Polish concentration camps. The infamous death camps, such as Auschwitz, were established and operated by Germany on the Polish territories invaded and occupied by Germans during the WWII. 

Using a phrase such as “Polish concentration camp” is offensive to Polish people not only because Poland had no role in running death camps where Jews were murdered during the war, but because Polish people were themselves victims of the Third Reich. Six million Polish citizens died during the war, about half of them Jewish. Many of the Polish priests (among them the Catholic saint, St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe) and members of intelligentsia and political resistance were killed in concentration camps built and operated by the Germans on the occupied Polish soil. 

Using this harmful term shows not only poor research and journalistic discipline, but also lack of awareness regarding the most recent Catholic Church history, such as that related to St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe. It is truly shocking to see this in the Catholic newspaper and it needs to be retracted immediately.

Jan Cytowski,

Canadian Polish Congress,

Toronto

Different roles

Re: Priority issue (Letters to Editor, Mar. 17):

Marilyn Fraboni’s letter expresses dissatisfaction with the Church’s response at the summit in Rome to the problem of sex abuse. It’s to her credit that she wants to see this issue properly addressed.

What’s objectionable, however, is her reference to Church leaders who attended this summit as a meeting of “the old-boys club.” 

At the Last Supper was Jesus merely presiding over a meeting of this exclusive men’s club? On the contrary, the Church has always revered women and many of them have become saints. Men and women are equal in dignity but are different in their biological and psychological makeup. They therefore have different roles within the Church. The Church wisely recognizes that fact.

Claudio Ceolin,

Toronto