Dear Editor: I am replying to Pat Giangrande’s letter (Oct. 7) in which was mentioned that Father James Martin, S.J. said numerous heretical “things” in his book, “Building Bridges.”

Speaking of heresies, who’s keeping tab of how many heretical utterings we make in our day-to-day interactions with people?

Canon law defines heresy as “an obstinate denial or obstinate doubt of a baptized Catholic of some truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith.” It is not heretical for Father Martin or anyone to suggest what was quoted in the letter: “The Church needs to rethink its teachings about homosexuality…”

The time has come indeed for the Church to have another aggiornamento. The Catholic Church has to clarify certain teachings that are ingrained in fragile Catholic minds such as that of homosexuality. Canon law states that homosexuality is an intrinsic disorder.

We cannot deny that Catholics, who want to keep their sanity, have been ignoring Church teachings. So the time has come when the Vatican has to face the music. It’s time to “rethink” certain moral issues that have become burdensome to consciences and lives of many Catholics. The very strict and etched-in-stone provisions of the canon law should be tempered with a formula that works most of the time. It’s called love. And this is precisely what Father James Martin and Pope Francis have been expressing, and for which they get criticized.

It is easy enough for the Church to offer sympathy, often accompanied with condemnation, when a member of the LGBT community is assaulted and murdered. It is time for the Church to reach out to its marginalized members in truly loving ways instead of overly focusing on sin, sinful behavior and punishment. And this can be done by “re-examining” and “re-thinking” ways in which the substance of the law as it has been written many, many years ago meets the spirit of the law as it affects many conflicted individuals now.

It’s time to inject “love” into our very “substance-filled” laws and turn them inside out to reveal the “spirit” of these laws. I am very optimistic since our own Pope Francis and Father James Martin believe that love conquers evil, and “Who are we to judge?” Indubitably, love always wins for God is love.

MONSERRAT WASHBURN

Levittown, L.I.

 

Dear Editor: When I go to church, I go as a practicing Catholic, never thinking that I belong to the “heterosexual community.” Does Father James Martin suggest that, at the beginning of the Mass, the celebrant should especially welcome members of the LGBTQ community?

My parish priests welcome everybody, why single them out?

Is it impossible for lay people to lead chaste lives? The Church demands the latter of every unmarried man or woman; and some never marry, or live widowed for decades. Nobody said it was easy.

JOSEPHINE HARKAY

Jamaica