Crime of Desecration at St. Augustine
Dear Editor: I read with a saddened heart about the vandalism which occurred at St. Augustine Church (“Sacrilegious Act,” June 4).
This was my family’s home parish for many years before they moved to Flatbush in 1926. The home they bought was in St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, but in 1927 Our Lady Help of Christians Parish was created. Father Henry Churchill was the pastor.
My father, William Hallahan, Jr. was in the first graduating class from the high school. Also, my grandmother, Julia Larkin Hallahan, was one of the ladies who donated their jewelry which became part of the altar. So sad.
Michael P. Hallahan
East Fishkill
Proceed with Caution
Dear Editor: In our righteous enthusiasm at the reversal of Roe v Wade, we Catholics may live to regret the surrender of our moral teaching authority to the arm of the secular state that styles itself the “justice system.”
As our immigrant forefathers well knew, the anti-Catholic laws fueled by public opinion persisted for more than a century after the ratification of our now-sacrosanct Constitution.
Has anyone considered that the mechanism that led to this latest “precedent” can as easily be applied against our beliefs just as it now has in their favor?
Public opinion is historically fickle. Are we unaware, for example, of the ongoing campaign, both from the left and the right, to forfeit our tax-free status?
I recall my grandfather’s cautionary adage: “You take the King’s shilling, you do the King’s bidding.”
Perhaps we should have rested on our moral authority, instead of shackling it to a secular legal one.
Edward R. Dorney
Park Slope
The Holy Eucharist
Dear Editor: I am totally shocked and also sad after reading that nearly two-thirds of Catholics do not believe that Jesus is present in the Eucharist after the consecration of the bread and wine during Mass.
I guess these Catholics were never taught about the meaning of the word transubstantiation. A very sad fact indeed. It is the most important foundation of our faith as true Catholics and this belief is exactly what sets us apart from all other religions.
God bless Father Carlos Velasquez and Bishop Robert Brennan for their important efforts to organize a committee for Eucharistic revival.
I remember processing around St. Brigid’s Church on the feast of Corpus Christi, while the priest held the monstrance containing the holy Eucharist. I remember thinking “Jesus is walking around our church and even outside.”
What a feeling of complete joy!
Paul Manheimer
Oakland Gardens
Father Troike Leadership Program
Dear Editor: Thank you to The Tablet for the excellent article on the Father Troike Leadership Program (“School Summer Program Returns to Cathedral Prep With New Look,” June 25).
Father Troike (who was my Old Testament teacher, spiritual director, and math tutor) is singing in the heavens with delight at the efforts of Father Kuroly to keep the program current by finding areas of a young man’s interest to tap into so as to elevate that young man into a Christian leader.
Father Troike had a unique ability to seek out a young man and call him into greatness. These were young men from Catholic schools in Queens that he met who perhaps were not seen as potential Christian leaders and future priests by others but were by Father Ed Troike.
Father Ed led by example in his living and his dying. What is happening at Cathedral Prep this summer is exactly what he was pioneering when I first entered those hallowed halls in 1970.
Were it not for the leadership example of men of greatness like Father Ed Troike (and the great Priest faculty at the Prep) I wouldn’t be a priest today.
Ad Multos Annos for the program and to those who led it.
Rt. Rev. Kevin Francis Donlon
Anglican Diocese of Zanzibar
The Closure of St. Lucy-St. Patrick
Dear Editor: Growing up in both parishes, I have fantastic memories of the people there (“St. Lucy-St. Patrick Shuttered Due to Changing Demographics, Costly Repairs,” page 28).
Hard-working people with a deep commitment to their families and faith. Most of them came from Europe with a dream in their heart of a new life. They brought with them their skills and resolve and most of all their faith.
They were served by giants of men. In St. Lucy the pastor was Msgr. Dante Del Fiorentino, a true and elegant man with great humility. In St. Patrick, it was Father Edwin Stedman and then Msgr. William J. Rodgers.
Change is inevitable as time moves on. The only thing to say is ‘well done.’
Dennis Raymond
Fort Greene