Last Updated:Thursday - 07/15/2010
October 19, 2009
WCR Letters to the Editor
Parishioner rejects appeal for $15M for seminary
In response to your Oct. 5 editorial regarding donating to the seminary ("Donating to seminary, college is investing in our future"), I wish to state my opinion regarding donations and fundraising beyond what the archdiocese received when it sold the St. Albert property.
First, I agree with your paragraph that states the important challenge we face. We need a seminary.
You say the new buildings do not appear extravagant. As far as I am concerned, building a facility at $15 million above the $42 million acquired from the sale of the previous property is getting close to extravagant.
The building project is not completed yet: We may be facing additional costs.
In this time when government, clergy and social welfare leaders preach restraint, I find the clergy is not giving good example.
Do you believe because the seminarians will have a luxurious place to study that we will have more ordinations?
Your editorial is timely for you and the archdiocese because you play on the good will of the faithful.
There are rumblings among my fellow parishioners and non-Catholics regarding what is being spent. We who faithfully tithe and are givers will be burdened again.
There are more takers than givers in Edmonton and as you well know, in any organization, religious or not, only 20 per cent do the work.
I certainly will not give any extra dollars to this project and I hope the seminary will publish for prospective donors information as to the number of seminarians that were ordained from St. Joseph Seminary in the past 10 years, where they are working and in what conditions.
Roland Soucy
Edmonton
Letter to the Editor - 11/02/09
South American leaders understand solidarity
I read with interest thetwo letters that appeared in your Sept. 21 issue. Sharing points of view opens the way to fruitful dialogue and casts a light into the way God reveals his presence in our world.
Many of the presidents of South and Central America were born during the era of military dictatorships. They grew up as militant members of national liberation movements. They defined their future mission in the light of what they, their families and their nations endured and suffered during the decades of oppression and repression.
In developed countries, political candidates are as chips off the traditional partisan block.
New leaders in South and Central America have a different background. They bring a personal experience and a different vocabulary as they speak of a politics of the common good.
They act in solidarity with their people, those suffering masses who are searching for social and economic benefits within an atmosphere of newly-found freedoms and democracies.
God has no favourites. We are all called to render an account of our stewardship: the incompetent for their misdemeanours, the good and faithful for their just rewards. (Read Jeremiah and Ezekiel.) By our fruits we shall be remembered.
The Good News of Jesus Christ is particularly relevant in this moment of history when inequalities have produced so much poverty and misery among our brothers and sisters.
The Lord reminds us to continue our mission to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, give shelter to the homeless, free the prisoners and proclaim that the kingdom of God is near at hand (Matthew 25). Donations may be sent to: Roots of Change Foundation, Box 92, St. Albert, AB T8N 1N2
Fr. Denis Hébert
Managua, Nicaragua
Catholic theologian faulted for 'liberal' stands
Re:"Catholic theologian rebuts online charges of liberal dissent" (WCR, Oct. 12).
Despite personal claims to the contrary, University of Toledo Catholic Studies professor Richard Gaillardetz is a hard-core liberal dissenter. The fact that he has been invited to talk at the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) plenary Oct. 19 clearly illustrates the deep level of dissent among our own episcopate.
The mark of the modernist is to press to overthrow fundamental doctrine using vague and ambiguous terminology.
Gaillardetz claims, for example, that he is not for women's ordination only that he "examined issues of infallibility concerning the Vatican's statement on the issue." But no one raises the issue of infallibility regarding women's ordination unless they intend on overthrowing it. Pope John Paul II has called women's ordination a "definitively closed issue."
Gaillerdetz also said he is not for abortion yet admittedly "questioned the strategy of trying to overturn Roe vs. Wade." Since the rate of abortions increased exponentially after Roe vs. Wade, common sense tells us that it would equally diminish if again forbidden by law.
Gaillerdetz claims he joined Obama's Catholic advisory board as a result of a "carefully considered prudential judgment". Everyone knows that Obama only selects to his committees those who will faithfully follow his culture of death agenda.
In one of his books, Gaillerdetz, deconstructs Catholic teaching on divine revelation and Church authority and advocates cafeteria Catholicism.
Further, he has attacked Humanae Vitae in his book A Daring Promise: A Spirituality of Marriage, advising "couples who struggle with the Church's teaching on contraception should follow their consciences." This is in line with the CCCB's dissenting view on contraception in their infamous Winnipeg Statement.
Gaillardetz attendance at the bishops' plenary meeting leads one to cry out "God help the Church in Canada."
Tom Richardson
Toronto
Letter to the Editor - 11/02/09
Letter to the Editor - 11/02/09
To too many, divorce offers an instant solution
Thank you, Mark Pickup, for your Sept. 7 article,"Divorce denigrates the sacrament of marriage."
I know not a single person who has not been hurt by divorce - either their own or the divorce of parents, siblings, children or friends.
In this imperfect world, we all make mistakes. However, our generation seems to prefer instant solutions to problems instead of the intensive, difficult work of reconciliation.
Granted, some relationships are beyond repair, but we should never lose sight of the ideal that God has called us to.
Gail Schulte
Camrose
Alberta Primetime applauded for coverage
What a blessing to see Archbishop Richard Smith appear on Alberta Primetime to share and teach on the immorality of euthanasia!
It is public examples like this as when he and Eparchial Bishop David Motiuk walked in the annual pro-life march last year through downtown Edmonton that call me to bend my knee in repentance so that I too will follow them proclaiming "Jesus Christ is Lord" to the secular world around us.
Thank you Alberta Primetime for reporting this news story to the public, unlike an Edmonton newspaper that even though the pro-life march last year directly encircled their building refused a second year in a row to report the news of 500 people marching together to support life.
These voices in the desert of faithful practising Catholics that profess their full obedience to the holy father and Catholic teaching of the magisterium give me a weak sinner hope and strength to carry my cross and try to straighten out my life to "prepare the way of the Lord" (John 1.23).
Marko Stefaniuk
Edmonton
Letters to the Editor
The WCR welcomes your letters. Please write 300 words or less and tell us your name, address and daytime phone number. All letters are subject to editing.
Opinions expressed in letters to the editor do not necessarily represent the views of the WCR.
Deadline for letters to be considered for publication is Friday noon, 10 days prior to the date of the issue.
The WCR’s policy for letters to the editor is available online atwww.wcr.ab.ca/letters-policy.shtml.
|
