Chicago Sun-Times
Dear Editor:
Thomas F. Roeser (“Why Old-Time Catholics Will Pray for Bernardin,” Nov. 16) has given new meaning to the term “sucker-punch.” At a time when Cardinal Bernardin is under attack by a self-confessed alcoholic, drug abusing, sexually irresponsible unemployed mental health worker – who just now claims to have experienced “a seeing and feeling memory” about an event that took place 17 years ago- Roeser exploits the timing to settle old scores.
If Roeser’s column demonstrates anything, it is that left-wing Catholic malcontents have no monopoly on vindictiveness.
Sincerely,
William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
New York Newsday
Dear Editor:
There are limits to everything, including irreverent humor. Unfortunately, that is something Marty Goldenshon has yet to learn. His piece “And Now the News: ‘It Never Happened,” (November 16) lumps the likes of admitted liars like Joey Buttafuco with Cardinal Bernardin, the Chicago Archbishop.
For the record, not only has Bernardin denied the charge of sex abuse, the person who made it is a self-confessed alcoholic, drug abusing, sexually irresponsible unemployed mental health worker who just now claims to have experienced “a seeing and feeling memory” about an event that took place 17 years ago.
It would appear that Goldenshon’s sense of equity is on a par with the character of Bernardin’s accuser.
Sincerely,
William A. Donohue, Ph.D
Detroit News
Dear Editor:
The November 5th front page story that focused on Mayor-elect Dennis Archer’s Catholicism was recently brought to my attention. It is tragic that in the late 20th century some are still questioning the suitability of
Catholics for holding public office. Let it be said just one more time: Catholics have no hidden agenda and they are committed to the well-being of the country as much as any other segment of the population. To suggest otherwise is pure ignorance or malice.
Sincerely,
William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
Commonweal
To the Editors:
For years my liberal Catholic friends have told me that it is absolutely inaccurate to say that liberal Catholics in any way support the rank sexuality, profanity, and violence that mark contemporary television and movie fare. The next time they make this lame argument, I will introduce them to Frank McConnell. For McConnell [“Smart, Hip, and Real,” Oct. 8] the worst thing about “NYPD Blue” is not the rank sexuality, profanity, and violence, it’s the show’s critics.
One wonders just how depraved TV must get before McConnell objects. In any event, he did a public service by showing what passes muster with liberal Catholics in the 1990s.
William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
Chicago Tribune
Dear Editor:
The headline of Joan Beck’s Oct. 7 column (“We should give up trying to ignore the value of religion”) refers to an alarming trend in this country toward forcing religion to remain a strictly personal matter. Ms. Beck’s praise of the book by Yale law professor Stephen L. Carter is a fitting response to an author whose voice of reason lends credibility to his message: Religion and religious people have a genuine and valuable contribution to make to the dialogue of democracy.
Professor Carter is correct when he asserts in “The Culture of Disbelief” that the 1st Amendment was adopted to protect religion from possible encroachment by the state, rather than to protect the state from religious influence, as is often argued in the courts. In challenging the notion that religion should remain invisible and its adherents silent, Carter speaks for millions of Americans who are denied full participation in the democratic process because of their religious convictions.
Many American derive great personal benefit from the cultivation of a rich interior life centered on their faith; America, too, has much to gain by renouncing the “culture of disbelief” and allowing religious groups and religious people to take their rightful place in debating the great moral questions of our time.
Catholic league Newsletter
Sincerely,
Nancy j. Gannon,
Special Counsel
The Boston Herald
To the Editors:
When it comes to Catholic- bashing, Margery Eagan is sim- ply shameless. Her crude attempt to link the new encycli- cal of Pope John Paul II to the James Porter case told us noth-
ing about what the Pope was trying to say, but everything we ever needed to know about Eagan’s obsessive anti-Ca- tholicism (“Keeping Faith: Tough in Light of Accusations,” Oct. 5).
Where the Catholic Church is con- cerned, Eagan makes no pretense at logical argument. She merely fires off cheap shots, snide remarks, non sequi- turs, and gratuitous cracks whenever and wherever she can. Her approach is petty, derisive, and superficial.
Trying to trash the Pope’s message on the morning of its publication, quite evidently without having read a word of it, suggests not only bigoted hostility to the Church, but a callous contempt for the religious sensibilities of Catholics.
Sincerely,
C. joseph Doyle,
Executive Director Massachusetts Chapter
Catholic Standard and Times (Philadelphia)
Congratulations on your excellent editorial on the consistent anti-Catholic bias of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Over the years, the Inquirer has never missed a chance to slam the Church, whether in its editorials, commentaries, slanted news stories and, especially, Tony Auth’s cartoons.
Tied in with this has been its biased reporting of the pro-life movement….
Surely, it is time for the Catholic people of our Archdiocese to wake up and take concrete action to end these persistent attacks on our church. No other group should stand for it – nor should we!
James A. Nolan
Greater Philadelphia –
South jersey Chapter
