Dear Editor: Catholics have no more of a free pass to denigrate the Catholic religion than non-Catholics, especially in a manner that involves vilification of two saintly popes. Letter writer Peter Farley applies the deplorable practice of projecting a political spectrum onto religion and claims that, until Francis, for 35 years “conservative” Catholics have been “stifling” progressive Catholics (Nov. 1).

The luminescent witness to truth provided by St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI were historic and providential gifts that provided many invitations for alienated Catholics and a sinful humanity to find the grace and peace that reconciliation to unchanging truth provides.

Contrary to the media’s narrative, Pope Francis, who has described gay marriage as an “anti-value and an anthropological regression” has invited alienated Catholics, gays and cohabiting Catholics to repent. This is hardly an endorsement of wrong behavior. Remorse for sins is essential to responding to God and helps us to avoid the accommodation to what is often selfishness in how we form our attitudes and blind ourselves to social damage.

With prayer, we can learn to hope that the tide of lax morals, substance abuse, aborted and abandoned children and broken lives that are direct repercussions from a culture that encourages easy divorce and easy sexual sin can be reversed.

NELLIE DONAGH
Brooklyn