ZE081206
ZENIT
The World Seen From Rome
Daily dispatch - December 06, 2008
LETTERS TO THE EDITORS
Education for the Whole Person
Remembering Pius XII
Agreeably Disagree
Catechize the Whole Woman
Guilty of Hard Work
No Justice With Unjust Laws
On Second Thought
Welcoming the Stranger
Toeing the Line
Education for the Whole Person
A response to: Holy See to UN Conference on EducationThe article is classical and a call to an ideal universal mode of education, especially from the formative stage of a child to adulthood. This was the kind of education some of us benefited from this all-embracing philosophy of human resources development in the Catholic tradition and has made us all-round, complete humans, serving humanity with diligence and integrity. I commend the position paper and pray for its acceptance and adoption.
Professor John Wade
Plateau State University
Bokkos, Nigeria
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A response to: Eager to Defend Pius
I remember that the Pope, when he was still the nuncio, had a meeting with Hitler, where he protested the treatment of the Jews and Gypsies. Hitler went into a rage and told him never to mention it again as otherwise he would first close all the monasteries and convents, then all the Catholic schools and would even close all the Catholic churches.
When he became Pope, messengers were sent from Rome with instructions to the cardinals to carefully instruct the people to help the Jews and Gypsies wherever. We had during the whole war six Jews and Gypsies living under the floor. If the Nazis had caught on, I would not have been able to tell you about it. [...]
Joseph Hiddink
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A response to: Archbishop Addresses Marriage Amendment Aftermath
I am proud of the strong and respectful reaffirmation by San Francisco's Archbishop George Niederauer of the Catholic teaching that marriage is reserved exclusively to just a man and a woman. Yet he was pastorally sensitive and compassionate to the those who felt hurt by the position of the Catholic Church in California on Proposition 8. Still, he said, tolerance doesn't mean we have to agree on strongly held convictions. It means that we agree to disagree without becoming disagreeable.
Rev. Gino Dalpiaz, C.S.
Scalabrini House of Theology
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A response to: More to Feminine Genius
Amen to the writer of this comment. I just yesterday sent a similar comment to my diocese's office of evangelization and catechesis, which seemed to constantly be holding "women's events" which were almost always about sex and reproduction. I begged them to balance the need/drive to catechize on these matters with a consideration that the spiritual needs of women are much broader than this. There is a risk of reducing women to their biology. I am a 30-year-old laywoman informally dedicated to celibate chastity for the kingdom of God (unable to enter religious life for health reasons).
Elizabeth Durack
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A response to: Questioning the Polls
Regarding Carole's comment on "illegals"...our immigration system is broken. People come here to work because their families are starving. There isn't time to wait years in line to maybe get the documents to come "legally". What would you do to feed your family? Most of the so-called "illegals" are only guilty of hard work.
Fran Fuller
St. Francis Catholic Worker
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A response to: Questioning the Polls
Yes, there is no charity in allowing injustice. But there is no justice in the eyes of God if the laws are unjust.
Many people consider the U.S. immigration laws unjust, unwisely strict and punitive.
What is needed, as the U.S. bishops and others have said, is a comprehensive reform of U.S. immigration law.
From my perspective here in Honduras, I also see -- as do the U.S. bishops -- a need for integral development so that people do not feel compelled to leave their families to seek to care for them.
I try to dissuade the people I meet from migrating but I also am working in several projects to help the people find ways to move out of the poverty that afflicts 73% of the Honduran people.
Yes, let's work for justice -- but the justice of a God who cares for the poor and the marginalized in a very special way.
John Donaghy
Lay missionary
Siocese of Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras
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A response to: Questioning the Polls
At first I found myself agreeing with Carole Winder and thought, "Yes, let's see some justice done. Charity begins at home." But then I thought about Joseph and Mary, and Jesus, and their escape into Egypt (Matthew Ch. 2) and wondered if the answers to the problems of immigration are as simple as we would like them to be.
Matthew McGrath
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A response to: Questioning the Polls
Before you take one line from Aquinas, which can be interpreted in other ways than in the manner in which you use it, take the many lines from Scripture that call us to welcome the stranger. I understand your concern about laws being broken, but the needs of the poor supersede these laws. That's not my opinion; rather, it is the Word of God.
If you read Matthew 25, for instance, you will see who it is we are welcoming -- the Lord himself. My experience through many years of solidarity with migrants (both legal and illegal) has taught me that to encounter the migrant is to encounter Jesus. Don't deny yourself this opportunity to get to know God by loving your neighbor. Go to the migrant and help him and learn from her and you will see God. In recognizing that you are your brother's keeper, you will be blessed with a profound sense of God's presence in the least brothers and sisters.
I promise you.
Tim Broyles
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A response to: Irish Bishops Unite Against Civil Partnership Bill
It seems the Irish bishops are coming dangerously close to violating the following very simple teaching expressed in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons": "The Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions."
God bless,
Tom Tarzian
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