Dear Mr. Fitzpatrick,
Thank you for your article Cheers for Bishops! And for USCCB’s U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Administrative Committee Calls for Protection of Marriage. I believe the delay from the bishops is because there is ongoing equivocation among the ranks. Our bishops continue to look to their left and to their right. I sense that there is still confusion on the clear and unequivocal position of the Church. Homosexual behavior is an intrinsic evil end of story. The US bishops have caused confusion in the past with their Always Our Children message and they continue to confuse the issue as they walk gingerly in an area that has been forthrightly addressed by the Holy Father. Our Bishops must not condone homosexual behavior in any way. They should not be rewarding the evil behavior. Yet we have in Worcester Massachusetts Bishop Daniel P. Reilly supporting health care benefits for gay couples. What is the message?
Our bishops must stop waffling and start teaching the faith. They must stop playing to the media and stop playing politics. Confusion begets despair. God bless our Holy Father for his courage and fearlessness, he truly shepherds God’s children with love and fidelity.
And God bless all who “fear not” and speak the truth.
In Christ,
Bob O’Meara
Dear Mr. Fitzpatrick,
I always enjoy your articles at C.E. And I also cheered when the Bishops endorsed that effort to stop “any legislative and judicial attempts, at the state and federal levels, to grant same-sex unions the equivalent status and rights of marriage by naming them marriage, civil unions or by other means.” But Catholic World News reported on Friday, October 24, that the Massachusetts Bishops have dropped their 10 year opposition to civil unions. My point is that many of us have grown weary of what looks like good news from the Episcopal Conference or even the Vatican only to find in practice no leadership or, as in this case, wrong leadership.
Think of it this way In September, the NCCB says we stand against this horror.
A month later the Bishops of a state oppose the NCCB and the Vatican's clear instructions… and nothing happens.
The strong faithful orthodox Catholics are being patronized. There was and is no intention to oppose these drives to normalize homosexual marriage.
Keep up the good work. Even in spite of all this, keep up a good spirit. As the old saying goes, I have read the end of the book….and Jesus wins!
God Bless,
Jim Martorana
To Catholic Exchange
Thank you so much for your article on same sex marriages available on the Catholic Exchange. What I really appreciated was your insight into our faith when it is convenient for others and its opposition when it doesn't fit their needs. As you can tell, I am not a brilliant writer so your words helped bring clarity to me so that I can hopefully verbalize my position more clearly. I also appreciate your both sides of the story take on things.
In Christ's Love,
Barbra Crumpacker
James K. Fizpatrick responds:
I understand the impatience of Mr. Martorana and Mr. O'Meara over the lukewarm support the American bishops have given the Pope on this matter. I hate to say this, but, considering the scandals of recent years, especially the revelations about Archbishop Weakland's payoffs to a man who accused him of a past sexual relationship, it is not difficult to suspect that there is a less-than-principled reason for what is happening.
********
Dear Catholic Exchange,
Peace in Christ! I am and remain a loyal fan and supporter of your internet apostolate.
I am a little disturbed, however, about your enthusiastic promotion, through ads and articles, of the book Dead Sea Conspiracy. I read the book earlier this year (prompted by your promotions). I appreciate the author's effort at bringing the arts back to the faith, and I do not doubt his good intentions. However, I was appalled by the overall message and sense of the story. It seems to me that the author leaned towards suggesting that the gospel is a fabrication. I read the book till the end, expecting there to be a surprising turn-around in the plot, but till the end, the sense was that the Jesuits did indeed have Jesus' hand, and that, if this truth would come out, the essence of our faith would indeed prove false. I would have appreciated the book much better if, in the end, it would have turned out that in fact they possessed evidence that the gospel is true, and that the conspiracy would have been that they had withheld this evidence.
Of course, this author has the right to write whatever he wants. But it is my opinion that this novel undermines our faith rather than strengthening it, and that therefore Catholic Exchange should not promote it.
In the-truly-risen-Christ,
Kris Lokere
Dear Kris,
Thanks for your feedback. I personally know Jim Fitzpatrick, author of The Dead Sea Conspiracy, to be an intensely faithful and orthodox Catholic.
He and I happen to share a charism for creating media that crosses over into the mainstream, our common purpose being to energize the lapsed/lukewarm/cultural/cafeteria Catholics in the culture, and this was his purpose in writing the book to stimulate that target audience of doubters. The general feedback on the book that I've seen is that many solid Catholics in our audience don't get it, and arrive at the conclusion that Mr. Fitzpatrick is a seeker, rather than the true believer that he really is.
The fact is, we have fashioned Catholic Exchange to be different from the typical “religious” sites that this type of lukewarm Catholic avoids like the plague. We strive to be a “Time Magazine without the Evil” in order to attract and fortify this group of, oh, about 50-55 million souls.
Consequently we target some editorial and some products to this group in order to grow the pie of believers and build the Church.
St. Paul said that if Christ be not risen our faith is in vain. The book, The Dead Sea Conspiracy is making this point. While there is no reversal within the book the fictional Jesuits possess evidence Jesus did not rise please remember that the reader walks away from the book into a world where there is no relic of Jesus' body, where the tomb is really empty. The reversal lies in reality itself and the lie remains within the fiction.
Sorry to have offended you; it certainly wasn't our intent. And thank you for your support.
Yours in Christ,
Tom Allen, Editor & President CatholicExchange.com
Editor's Note: To contact Catholic Exchange, please refer to our Contact Us page.
Please note that all email submitted to Catholic Exchange or its authors (regarding articles published at CE) become the property of Catholic Exchange and may be published in this space. Published letters may be edited for length and clarity. Names and cities of letter writers may also be published. Email addresses of viewers will not normally be published.