Letters

On Your Knees, Americans In “To the Ends of the Earth,” his review of the Rev. Robert Barron’s television film “Catholicism” (11/21), Maurice Timothy Reidy writes: “Yet in general the film fails to convey that the church is a living tradition, one that continues t

Losing to Islam and New Age “The Changing Face of Theology” (10/24), by T. Howland Sanks, S.J., gives us cause to reread an earlier article in America by Roger Haight, S.J. (3/17/08). Theology is not static or dead, as we were taught in the Baltimore Catechism—and left with only th

Tear It Down Re Bill Williams’s review of Julian Guthrie’s The Grace of Everyday Saints (11/7) about the fight to save St. Brigid’s church: I was married in St. Brigid’s 56 years ago, and I can state that it was not a thriving parish. Two friends of mine were among the very f

Make Charities Catholic Re “Fighting Bias” (Current Comment, 10/31): The federal government’s recent denial of funds for the U. S. Bishops’ Office of Migration and Refugee Services should come as no surprise. Whoever controls funds controls how the funding agencies operate. T

I Can No Longer Listen Re “Pope Promotes ‘Unworldly’ But Open Church” (Signs of the Times, 10/10): I would like to hear Pope Benedict’s message with a joyful, open heart. I would like to welcome the good news of Jesus into my life as it is proclaimed to me by my church

Undaunted Just a little note on the “Save the Altar Girls” editorial (10/10). I winter in Florida, where my parish swells to seven weekend Masses during the snowbird season, with three aging priests to handle them. One Sunday none of the altar servers showed up, and the priest asked if s

The Dead Canary In response to Signs of the Times, “Pope Promotes ‘Unworthy’ but Open Church” (10/10): Being a voice in the world but not of the world is a tough road to follow. The church will change; even the decision not to change produces change, because the worldly conte

Delusionalism In response to V. Bradley Lewis’s “American Exceptionalism” (10/3), there are still more sinister connotations to that word. Not only does it distract us from facing our problems, but it implies that the nation is entitled and favored by God to be number one in everyt

Let It Rock! Thank you for Kerry Weber’s article on Christian Rock, “Show a Little Faith” (9/26). Last August I was celebrating Mass at an out-of-town church. I was ambivalent about its Christian Rock choir. I understood its roots in the folk Masses of the 1970s, amped up with adde

How to Become Irrelevant In response to Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s “A New Relationship” (9/26): The church has followed for centuries the axiom that theology is fides quaerens intellectum (faith seeking understanding)—faith being the catechetical part, understanding the theologi