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Contributions to Reader's Forum should be limited to 250 words.
Letters must be signed and must include the writer's address and
phone number for verification purposes. All letters are subject
to editing.
Mail your letter to:
The Catholic Voice
2121 Harrison St., Suite 100
Oakland, CA 94612
FAX: (510) 893-4734
Email letters to:
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Respecting God’s design
The Catholic Voice missed another opportunity to correct a dissenting
individual’s letter to Reader’s Forum, Chuck Schneider’s
letter (Forum, Sept. 7) in support of contraception. Scripture is clear
that if you do not correct your brother in charity, then you will be held
accountable for his sins.
The Catholic Voice should have included an editorial comment and explained
that contraception takes apart God’s design while Natural Family
Planning respects God’s design and is always open to the possible
miracle of life.
Furthermore, besides all the adverse health risks of contraceptives, many
so-called contraceptives are actually abortifacients. The IUD prevents
the implantation of the new life in the womb. Likewise, the birth control
pill and the emergency contraceptive Plan B pills can also act as an early
abortion agent.
When individuals promote contraceptives, they are also unwillingly promoting
microscopic abortions.
Sex is a sign of marriage and truly the bonding of a married couple is
a desirable end, but the end never justifies the means.
Catholic teaching is that the use of contraceptives is evil while the
practice of Natural Family Planning is good. Our bodies are temples of
the Holy Spirit. We should never use our body or another person’s
body by manipulating and altering natural healthy functions.
This also explains the Catholic teaching against embryonic research and
in vitro fertilization, which involved destroying or using the bodies
of embryos.
Our bodies are so important to God that He has promised to raise our bodies
up on the last day. God is not content with just having our holy souls
in heaven; God has definite plans to have our glorified bodies in heaven.
Thomas Lenz, MD
Clayton
(Dr. Lenz is a volunteer instructor in Natural Family Planning in the
Oakland Diocese.)
Addressing complex problems
Health care and immigration reform are complex problems.
All opinions on these issues are being openly aired and discussed
without fear of reprisal. These discussions will greatly assist our
elected leaders to find solutions that will serve the larger national
interests.
Regularizing the “illegals” and providing them health care
may strengthen the Church as an establishment, but it will also cause
immense social, economic and legal problems for the nation.
There are millions who have been patiently waiting for
years for “the piece of paper” that indicates approval of their immigration
applications. Most of these people are relatives of American citizens
hoping to be united with their loved ones or are people looking for an
escape from religious persecution in the countries of their birth.
They have gone through expensive medical examinations and paid large amounts
of money to obtain the required “No Objection Certificates”
from corrupt local officials.
The national need is for an affordable health plan. The reported
examples of those whose lives are negatively affected are cause for
concern, but equally pathetic are the cases of the many who also
suffer because of loss of medical coverage brought about by high
insurance premiums and loss of employment.
The widely accepted choices of a Preferred Provider Organization (PPO)
plan or the less expensive Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) plan
can be fine-tuned to cost less and, with additional funds, offered
more extensively. Proper planning can also limit involvement by government.
Bishop Salvatore Cordileone reportedly stated that human dignity is God-given
and innate and doesn’t depend on one’s legal status or financial
resources. This is true, but the harsh fact is that everything comes at
a cost and all must make their fair contributions. To expect to find
solutions to the health care and immigration plans by further adding
to a deficit budget is a dream.
I believe that the position taken by the Church will compartmentalize these
issues and will make finding a common ground much more
difficult.
Robert P. Mendonca
Concord
A Church that forgives
Clifford R. Wiesner (Forum, Sept. 7) decries the fact that the Church
has “bestowed its blessing” on Ted Kennedy. Mr. Wiesner assumes
that it is because Kennedy was rich and powerful.
I think our writer is having trouble seeing the bigger picture. Recall
the story of the prodigal son. Even rich and powerful senators are real
people and so are their wives and children. The local Catholic priest
did attend Kennedy in his last years. Are we a forgiving Church?
The pope did send his blessing to the dying senator after receiving his
letter, which in part says of his 50 years in public service:
“I have done my best to champion the rights of the poor, and open
doors of economic opportunity. I’ve worked to welcome the immigrant,
to fight discrimination and expand access to health care and education.
I have opposed the death penalty and fought to end war. Those are the
issues that have motivated me and have been the focus of my work as a
United States senator.
“I also want you to know that, even though I am ill, I am committed
to do everything I can to achieve access to health care for everyone in
my country. This has been the political cause of my life. I believe in
a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field and I will continue
to advocate for it as my colleagues in the Senate and I work to develop
an overall national health policy that guarantees health care for everyone.
“I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic, Your Holiness, and
though I have fallen short through human failings, I have never failed
to believe and respect the fundamental teachings of my faith. I continue
to pray for God’s blessings, on you and on our Church, and would
be most thankful for your prayers for me.”
Our Church, like Jesus, is big enough to embrace all of us sinners.
Theresa Schexnayder
Via email
Prayer for Priests
During this Year for Priests, I would like to offer this Irish Prayer
for Priests, which a group of us have been saying daily after Mass at
St. Philip Neri Parish in Alameda for years. Maybe other parishes will
be led to do the same.
Please keep them, Jesus, for they are Thine.
Priests whose lives burn-out before Thy Sacred Shrine.
Keep them for they are in the world
Though from the world apart.
When earthy treasures tempt and allure,
Please shelter them in your Sacred Heart.
Keep them, Jesus, they have none but Thee
They have only human hearts
With human frailty.
Please keep them as spotless as the Host
That daily they caress.
Their every thought, word, act and deed
Deign, dearest Lord, to bless.
Marybeth Bryne
Alameda
Divorce threatens marriage
In the Sept. 7 issue of The Catholic Voice, Bishop Cordileone is quoted
as saying that “marriage is good, . . . marriage is holy. . . .
It benefits everyone.” Elsewhere he said: “Strong marriages
and families are foundational to society.”
Except for the “holy” part, there are few if any citizens
of this country who would disagree. However, there is no statistical evidence
that anything the Catholic Church says or does has been very successful
in preserving the sanctity (holiness) of the matrimonial union to any
greater degree than marriages of other religious groups, or even groups
of people who claim no religion at all.
If there is any impediment to the sanctity of sacramental marriage, it
is the degree to which Catholics no longer view marriage as a sacred lifetime
commitment, not the desire of same-sex couples to enter into that bond.
Jim McCrea
Piedmont
The opinions expressed in letters to Reader's Forum
are the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of The
Catholic Voice or the Oakland Diocese.
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