Recent Events at St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Dear Editor: After the total disrespect of a funeral ritual of a baptized Catholic person at St. Patrick’s Cathedral this past week, I would pray that our dioceses implement a restriction that only installed readers participate in the Liturgy of the Word and that eulogies be prohibited from the Mass.
Eulogies are not part of the liturgy already and should be limited to either the funeral home or graveside.
I know this may offend many people but we must maintain the sanctity of the Church and the Mass.
Deacon Thomas Gleason
Marine Park
Memories of RCIA
Dear Editor: Every year at this time I remember with great joy the part I played in RCIA.
I first was a sponsor when Msgr. Delendick had the program in Good Shepherd. I enjoyed taking the journey with my candidate all through Lent right up to the Easter sacraments.
I wasn’t sure I was ready for this but I was firm in my faith. I had been trained and I had taught, so I dove in.
It was the most rewarding experience ever, teaching adults seeking the faith for the first time or adults who didn’t complete their sacraments of initiation. I loved every minute of it. They were there because they wanted to be there. These are the ideal people to teach, those who want to learn.
It was a lot of work, there were a lot of questions I found hard to answer, but we persevered and made it to Easter. I never sang Alleluia with the feeling I did with that first RCIA group.
God Bless all RCIA teachers and coordinators! It’s a great job filled with many blessings.
Maria F. Mastromarino
Manalapan, NJ
Thanks for Remembering Bishop Ford
Dear Editor: I was happy to see the article remembering Bishop Francis X. Ford (“Bishop Francis X. Ford Is Remembered at Mass,” March 3).
My aunt was a Maryknoll nun, Sister Julia Hannigan, MM, who was in communist prison at the same time as Bishop Ford.
She has since passed away. She died a couple of weeks short of her 100th birthday.
She would tell us about the sad things that happened there. I hope Bishop Ford will be eventually canonized. I believe that he should be.
Thank you for keeping him in the forefront, as well as the Bishop Francis Xavier Ford, MM, Guild.
Mary Staab
Howard Beach
Same Old Policies for NY
Dear Editor: You would think that the first resolution for the new year on the part of our elected officials would be to keep our city and state safe.
Instead, except for a few outnumbered members, they’re still all compliant with the same goal to keep our jails empty by not repealing the Andrew Cuomo no jail reform bill of 2019 and the long, insane sanctuary city policy.
And now, just recently, Rev. Juan Ruiz, pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Bay Ridge, posted the $15,000 bail for the release of Yohenry Brito, one of the migrants that attacked the two police officers in Times Square.
You would think the reverend would have compassion and respect for the officers and would use that money to help our own homeless people here at home. Be alert, be vigilant, and speak up New York.
Thomas and Constance Dowd
Oakland Gardens
Truth Is Exclusive to God
Dear Editor: This is a response to the misunderstanding by a letter commenting on a recent George Weigel essay (Letters, Feb. 2).
Edward Dorney misunderstands George Weigel’s defense of a Catholic understanding of objective truth, which Dorney identifies as idiosyncratic claims of exclusivity. It should be self-evident with religious faith that no one gets to have their own version of truth.
Why? Because faith includes the knowledge that truth, not some, not most, but all truth is the reflection of the perfect mind of God, and His creatures create no truth at all. We can express, discover, and be creative in giving witness to truth, but we create no truth. We can’t even really possess the truth. Truth possesses us.
We can lie to ourselves and falsify claims about what is true. We deceive ourselves every time we sin, but we cannot displace God’s reality and invent false realities. When we try, evil happens. This doesn’t preclude imagination, but honorable imagination is grounded in ideas and natural law principles innate to our divinely endowed human condition that reflects that which is eternal and immutable.
God knows everything already. God never deprived any people of adequate knowledge of how they ought to order their lives.
Edward J. Baker
Fresh Meadows