Readers Speak Out: January 23, 2022

Red-letter day

Regarding Cardinal Collins celebrating his 75th birthday, His Eminence earned the love of Catholics across Canada when he wrote his letter of July 1, 2008, decrying the award of the Order of Canada to abortionist Henry Morgentaler.

The one-page letter expressed what we all felt. Especially poignant were these sentences from the fourth paragraph: “I earnestly appeal to all who are tempted to resort to an abortionist, or are pressured to do so by those around them. I urge you to contact organizations such as Birthright and others who will support you and love you and your precious child. Contact your parish. We are here for you. I pledge to you the support of the Catholic Church.”

Lise Anglin,

Toronto

Penitential burden

The first step to getting this residential school penitential campaign right could be to convince Canadian Catholics that they have done something wrong to our Indigenous brothers and sisters and are responsible for making amends.

At this time, I do not see it this way. In my view, the residential schools project was a government of Canada initiative.

As with the many mandates and usurpations of the rights of Canadians in these pandemic days, if we disagree, we could be forced to contribute through our parish donations. I suppose one response to this approach is for Catholics to stop contributing to their parishes. If we truly feel the residential school crisis was dreamed up to hurt the Church, such a response could be appropriate and in the long-term interests of Christ’s earthly institution.

The burden this places on our bishops is not a light one and they need our prayers.

John Killackey,

Mississauga, Ont.

De Souza impresses

Fr. Raymond de Souza’s recent articles in The Catholic Register are an enlightening relief. Someone is finally asking journalists to at least avoid embellishing their articles. Surely we can expect no less from the Catholic press.

What happened in the Indigenous community needs no exaggerating. Just let the investigation proceed.

The Catholic laity is hurting and looking for truths yet some of our own are accepting anything written as Gospel.

Where there was wrongdoing in the Christian-run Indigenous schools, it was man’s doing, not God’s. Let us be hopeful we can come together informed and in a united front.

Robert Heenan,

Lindsay Ont.

Fundamental balance

Re: Let’s restore some balance in our time (Peter Stockland, Jan. 9) and Catholic media must do better (Fr. Raymond de Souza, Dec. 5).

Hear, hear!

Karl Barth said that a real Christian prays with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. It is this fundamental balance that has fallen by the wayside and the dereliction of the mainstream media is a root cause. This makes the role of a Catholic newspaper all the more critical.

Balance is mental health and I regard the scuppering of the fundamental distinction of what is due to God and what is due to Caesar as our primary spiritual crisis.

Michael Dias,

Markham