Dear Editor: I just finished reading Antonina Zielinska’s article (Feb. 9) in the Brooklyn Tablet entitled “Doctor Questions When a Life No Longer Matters.” What an excellent summary of a very complicated matter. Somehow the contents in the article need to be more widely circulated. Myself and another priest run two parishes in Kenosha, Wis., in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

Both parishes have a large number of elderly and so we are frequently called to administer the Sacrament of the Sick.

There are also three hospitals, none with any chaplain, and many levels of “care facilities.” By the time the priest is called, the individual is well into the “dying process.” People accept at face value whatever the doctor, nurse, etc. tells them. You believe whatever the “experts” tell you. Many people think that food and water are extraordinary means. We encounter problems all the time.

Also, I thank Antonina Zielinska for her article on Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church (“Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Parish,” December 15, 2018). I was only at that church once when Msgr. George Schuster, who died a little over a year ago, was pastor. I was born and raised in St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Woodhaven. We moved away to Wisconsin, where my mom was from, after my dad retired. That is how I was ordained here. Have a blessed Lent.

FATHER ROBERT MCDERMOTT

Kenosha, WI

Editor’s Note: Father Robert McDermott, a native New Yorker, is associate pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church and St. Therese of Lisieux Church in Kenosha, Wis.

 

Dear Editor:  I want to thank Antonina Zielinska for her wonderful, accurate and well-written article on the end of life issues which appeared in The Tablet (Feb. 9). We are all very pleased and grateful. She is a reporter extrordinaire!

CLARA SARROCCO

Via email

Editor’s Note: Sarrocco is a member of University Faculty for Life.