Thank You, Bishop Brennan
Dear Editor: Are there any other words that fit Bishop Robert Brennan other than kind, caring, loving, attentive, and always willing to give of himself?
I am 99 years old and still a practicing Catholic, a resident of Queens, and my parish is Most Precious Blood.
How Blessed are we all to have Bishop Brennan reside in the Diocese of Brooklyn?
Josephine Tanalski
Astoria
The Young Search for Connection
Dear Editor: I would like to comment on the “Spirituality Is Replacing Religion for Many People” article in the Dec. 10 edition of The Tablet.
In the ’70s, while still trying to discern a vocation, I was steered to the Paraclete Book Center on Lexington Ave. by a young woman who had displayed on her desk at CCNY Thomas Merton’s book, “Faith and Violence.” I purchased it and also Merton’s “Seven Storey Mountain.”
I was young, impressionable, and searching for connection and meaning in my world. A few years later, in pre-med biology class at Manhattan College, I was so fortunate to fulfill some “required” credits in religion by taking classes in Scripture with Father Anthony Rubsys and Liturgy with Dr. John Barry Ryan.
These “courses” spoke to me personally. The young are not foolish, they are very much in earnest about meaning in life, even in searching for God.
Authors and teachers who can offer “connections” to the hunger of the young for meaning through ideas, art, architecture, poetry, philosophy, etc., are what they need.
Every diocese should have programs that approach the young in this way.
Raymond F. Roberts, Jr.
Bergenfield, N.J.
Pledge to Be His True Disciples
Dear Editor: I read with interest Bill Miller’s Dec. 10 article, “Spirituality is Replacing Religion for Many People.”
My first conclusion is that Satan is alive and well and viciously and maniacally intent, as usual, in destroying the faith-based truth, mission ministry, and basic understanding of our Catholic Church teachings and beliefs.
Sadly, in many cases, the root causes for this reported state of flux and confusion is the outright failure and mismanagement of those who may have been picked to share and teach the Gospel of Christ and His followers.
What we so often witness in today’s world is nothing less than the spoiled fruit of our own failure to correctly and passionately pass on the teachings of God and Jesus, which were supposed to be handed down by or to each of us.
Perhaps, as we celebrate Jesus’s birth, we might pledge to be His true disciples and evangelists and assist others in saving their own souls.
May you and your families have a blessed and memorable Christmas.
Bob Fallon
Breezy Point
Remembering Msgr. Michael J. Cantley
Dear Editor: Msgr. Michael J. Cantley, who died on Nov. 28 at the age of 93 (“A Brilliant Professor and Priest,” Dec. 10), was the consummate gentleman, priest, and scholar who served the Diocese of Brooklyn for nearly 70 years.
I first met Msgr. Cantley when he was my professor at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington. Later, he asked me to serve as his parish trustee at St. Anastasia in Douglaston. We were friends, and I will miss him.
His interests were broad — ranging from Avery Dulles to Andrew Greeley to Richard John Neuhaus to Elizabeth Johnson — and he loved to write. When I visited him a few weeks before his death, he gave me a copy of his draft, “Catechesis on Jesus Christ and His Mission.”
Twenty years ago, when I was seeking an adjunct teaching position, Msgr. Cantley provided me with a letter of recommendation to St. Joseph’s University. I have been an adjunct there ever since.
Msgr. Cantley was also a keen administrator. During his 20 years as pastor of St. Anastasia, he helped ensure the future stability of the parish.
I join Msgr. Michael Hardiman, in his fine summation: “A lot of people in the diocese will see his passing as a great loss, and I’m certainly one of them.”
Donald Harris
Douglaston
According to Our Lady of Fatima
Dear Editor: Our Lady of Fatima said that every country would be under communism if people did not amend their lives.
We see that happening right before our eyes. Letting a top Russian terrorist free is going to backfire on us. We are going to see bloodshed here, just like in Ukraine.
Let us pray our family rosary each and every day as requested by Our Lady of Fatima.
Wanda Lucci
Bath Beach
