Letters to the Editor

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Make contribution to Retirement Fund for Religious collection a priority during this giving season

As we enter the annual period of stewardship emphasis and much competition for our charitable contributions, let’s not forget to affirm the numerous contributions of our retired and infirm sisters through support of the upcoming Retirement Fund for Religious collection.

Fulfill your own life. Honor the ministry to religious orders long rendered by Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin.

Join widely diverse people in their sincere effort to aid the growing needs of increasing numbers of retired religious, who never cease to remember all of us in their daily prayer life.

- Diane Liptack | Associate, Sisters of St. Francis, Oldenburg

Cardinal Dolan’s congratulatory message to president is unnecessary and sends wrong message, reader says

I am saddened to read in the Nov. 16 issue of The Criterion that Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, congratulated President Barack Obama on his re-election.

I cannot fathom how the cardinal could stoop so low to offer congratulatory words to someone who does not know the truth and who treats the Catholic Church with outright contempt.

How does the cardinal expect the laity to understand that President Obama is doing everything he can to nullify the First Amendment to the Constitution—“Congress shall make no law … prohibiting the free exercise of religion”—when the cardinal himself is glad-handing the president. It is indeed sad.

My parents, who loved the Catholic Church and the United States of America, are turning over in their graves.

My mother told me if you can’t say something good about someone, say nothing. I think the cardinal needs to practice that, and learn some common sense.

- Mary Krumm | Versailles

As people of faith, we must follow the Church and its truths to get to heaven

In response to the letter to the editor in the Nov. 23 issue of The Criterion with the headline, “Election letter was mean-spirited and not very Christian, Greenwood parishioner says,” the highest goal in life is union with God our Father in heaven.

Jesus gave us the road map and example of how to attain this goal. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 7:21).

“The household of God, which is the Church of the living God, is the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Tm 3:15).

The Church, therefore, gives the truth of the will of the Father, and to follow the truth leads to heaven, our highest goal.

The Church tells us that abortion is a sin, that contraception is a sin, that homosexual activity is a sin, that assisted suicide is a sin. Giving a positive vote in the past election to one who embraces and perpetuates these sinful activities when an alternative candidate is available is abandoning the Church, hence, abandoning the will of God.

Forsaking Jesus puts one’s soul in jeopardy and makes one an accomplice to enhancing the culture of death.

It is not mean-spirited nor is it judgmental to admonish the sinner and instruct the ignorant.

Indeed, these are spiritual works of mercy, and we must do them. There is no clear logical justification to vote for the culture of death when a valid alternative is provided.

We must vote for candidates who will do the least harm.

- Paul Kachinski | Indianapolis