Gentlemen/Ladies:
The National Catholic Register is a fairly good paper, and I read it, but it pulls its punches on the scandals. I also get The Wanderer, and it faces hard facts head-on.
I'm wondering whether to continue my Register subscription, frankly. We need to know the truth that sets us free, but a tame, timid proclamation of it is as useless as, say, a smoothly rounded scalpel in the hand of a surgeon.
We Catholics have to get over our fear of the “H” word, call a spade a spade, and clean house. We should start with a lot of bishops—say, 110, give or take—whose fruits, to put it mildly, are anti-apostolic. One-half of one percent of the priests being rotten can be dealt with (and probably have been, for centuries); rotten cardinals, archbishops, and bishops are the most severe cancer in the Church, poisoning the priesthood, catechesis, liturgy, public witness and our children's education.
Can the USCCB/NCCB “solve” the problem? It IS the problem! Where is the leadership to call that focus of infection exactly what it is and has been? Out with the modernist Alinskyites and their fifth column! (Think I'm kidding? Re-read the original “All Our Children.” The NCCB apparatchiks are so bad they selected two dissident laypersons to address the assembled bishops, yet even those two dissidents told the bishops THEY are the problem.)
I could go on, but you get my point. It is YOU—and the rest of the Magisterially-loyal media—who should be getting on with going on with it. Feel free to pass this on to the Register, an otherwise fine paper.
Sincerely in Christ,
Joseph I. Farley, Jr.
Dear Mr. Farley,
Thank you for your feedback. I personally subscribe to NCR and consider it an outstanding publication. You're correct that its editorial style is less aggressive than The Wanderer, but then the voices of truth need to cover a range of points on the spectrum so as to attract the full range of faithful Catholic readers.
I do not believe that NCR has evaded its responsibility to discuss the issue of homosexuality in the Church. It simply does so in a less strident manner than The Wanderer (which is also on my subscription list, BTW). NCR simply elects to cast a wider net into the mainstream Catholic culture than The Wanderer, but does so without sacrificing one iota of orthodoxy. So I'd encourage you to renew your subscription to NCR; theirs is a unique voice eminently worthy of our support.
Yours in Christ,
Tom Allen
Editor & President
Catholic Exchange
Evangelizing Unbelievers
Dear Editor,
Catholic Exchange is a great resource. Yours is the first “voice” I read when I turn on my computer. Please keep up the good work!
I am writing in response to the article by Amy Welborn Whither Evangelization. Her comments are accurately reflective of our modern culture but she offers no suggestions with respect to how one might effectively evangelize the “unbeliever”. Rather, her article seems to end on a note of despair: “Can we blame them?” I would love to know what Amy thinks is a reasonable and effective approach to evangelism in today's culture.
Thank you,
Jim Owens
Hi Jim,
Thanks for your feedback and your support. I'll give you an answer that may sound self-serving but is in fact utterly sincere: While evangelization is very much an art, we can begin effectively preparing “unbelievers” and the lukewarm for conversion by persuading them to make Catholic Exchange their homepage instead of Yahoo, AOL or MSN.
This simple act will automatically expose them on a daily basis to the kind of material that may light a fire within their souls and inspire them to seek more information about the Faith. It is not too radical a departure from their norm in that CE offers secular news, weather, sports and financial alongside the rich faith content. But it does introduce a Catholic focus into their daily lives.
When it comes down to it, of course, the Holy Spirit affects conversions. But we can and must act as catalysts. I will forward your comments to Amy.
In Christ,
Tom Allen
Editor, CE
The Effects of Porn
Dear Catholic Exchange,
I enjoyed your response to Mr. Kelly Stevens entitled, What's So Wrong with Watching Porn?
Mr. Stevens sees clearly the link between violence in the media and violence in our society, especially our youth. It is very obvious, however, that Mr. Stevens does not have a teenage girl who has had the unpleasant experience of dealing with young men who are addicted to pornography. If he had, he’d probably feel differently. The fact of the matter is that through the Internet our young men, whose hormones are already raging, are provided with instant access to all the pornography they can consume, and then some. Like watching violence, they quickly lose the ability to separate fantasy with reality, and any “real” girl around them pays the price. As a father, I've lived the horror of having my daughter verbally and physically abused by boys hopped-up on porn. Whether Mr. Stevens agrees with the moral message contained in your response or not, I sure hope he understands that there are very real consequences to his position.
Thanks and God bless,
David J.
Tampa, FL
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