We Need to Educate and Reaffirm What we Know
Dear Editor: Great strong message from the bishop, especially with regard to Mother Cabrini and the new statue in Battery Park, NYC (“One Hopeful Moment During a Devastating Year for NYers,” Put Out Into the Deep, Oct. 24).
As a member of the Commission, I also stood with great pride that day, and look forward to learning of the new statue in Brooklyn as well.
Mother Cabrini is a role model for all who support immigration with all of its complexities, knowing that she was there at times that were difficult in themselves for so many.
As to the issue of Columbus, we need to educate and reaffirm what we know for sure: Columbus was a discoverer and surely the Admiral of the Seas; he opened a New World uniting two continents; and he was a man of his times with all of its strengths and weaknesses. But most of all, he was a Christian and Catholic, who sought the resources to grow his faith and protect the Holy Land, a factor that cannot be forgotten, but increasingly studied.
Joseph Sciame
New Hyde Park
Editor’s note: Sciame is president of the Sons of Italy Foundation and National Past President of the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America (OSDIA).
Just Pretend his Name Is “John Smith”
Dear Editor: Let’s be honest. If you look at the Republican platform which is pro-life, lower taxes, protection of the First and Second Amendments, smaller government, conservative Supreme Court justices who protect the right to life from conception to natural death and law and order that protects all of us, most of us Catholics would say, “Yeah!”
If the Republican candidate wasn’t named Donald Trump, you’d probably vote for him/her. You may want to “shoot the messenger,” but just pretend his name is “John Smith” and vote for the platform. You don’t have to like Trump, you don’t have to invite him over for dinner, but you do have to look at the platform, consider Scripture and how precious children were to Jesus and vote accordingly.
Carolyn Courtien
Marine Park
We are all Children of God And Deserve His Love
Dear Editor: As a Catholic, I would like to applaud Pope Francis. In a new documentary called “Francesco,” he said, “homosexuals have a right to be part of a family.” Well, I totally agree. Pope Francis believes no one should be thrown out of the church because of their sexual orientation.
I understand there are those who would disagree with the Pope but remember what Jesus in the Bible said that is whoever is without sin may cast the first stone. Remember He also says this in Matthew 7:1 “Stop judging, that you may not be judged.” We are all children of God and deserve his love.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.
Bellerose
The Struggles of People Who Want to Live Better
Dear Editor: Hypocrites! We are living in the times of the Pharisees and King Ahab or Nebuchadnezzar, their courtiers, and sycophants.
There are people who care only for the form of the law and not for people who have to live with those laws; people who talk about the right to life, yet ignore when black women, men and children are killed by police; people who want to make America great again and yet ignore the injustices that are happening every day; people who do not care when the law is used to oppress and disenfranchise people from voting on reservations and neighborhoods across this country.
There are people who ignore that their king and his courtiers have jailed immigrant children and parents in cages and in for-profit jails where workers for ICE allegedly abuse and assault the living; people who will ignore and explain away why the government cannot find the parents for the over 500 immigrant kids taken from their parents; people who sit on their privileged perches and know nothing of the struggles of people who want to live in better housing and get improved education, from birth to death.
Angela Coard
Marine Park
Our Right to Attend Mass Must be Defended
Dear Editor: Bravo to the bishop for fighting the modern-day Pontius Pilate in Albany via court action. He must appeal till he gets to the U.S. Supreme Court (“Federal Judge Backs Cuomo Church Limits,” Oct 24).
With the advent of future Justice Barrett on the court, his avenue to success is open. The two federal court judges who denied the application are dead wrong. Apparently, they skipped constitutional law class in law school.
Something tells me that if the anarchists were marauding the streets of New York City looting and terrorizing innocents, the federal judges would have been most receptive to their needs — even though they would forego masks and social distancing. It just wouldn’t matter as it’s politically correct and apparently the right to attend Mass is not.
Marian Polovy
Marine Park
Judges’ Decisions Against The Diocese of Brooklyn Were Biased
Dear Editor: Judges who have ruled against the Diocese are Democrats and therefore support New York Governor Cuomo (“Judge Denies Diocese Request for Preliminary Injunction Against Cuomo,” Oct. 24).
With other decisions made by Cuomo regarding abortion and euthanasia and the nursing home deaths particularly within Queens, it is very obvious that he is not a practicing Catholic.
I recognize the decisions made by the judges against the diocese is all biased and nothing more than a denial of the fact that Governor Cuomo’s executive order is discriminatory.
I believe that Cuomo, de Blasio, and the judges have turned the issue of church attendance and shutdowns into nothing more than a “political” game where they refuse to listen to the facts presented to the court.
It is ridiculous to rule that within a huge church that seats 800 or more that even there, there can only be 10 to 25 people attending Mass. I believe I read in The Tablet that it referred to a church that seats 800 people and only 10 people would be allowed to attend Mass. I hope the diocese brings this lawsuit to the Supreme Court where it will be “one of a kind.”
I hope the Diocese attorneys remember the following: It is a fact that we have many people who attend stores and public places without wearing a mask even when social distancing is impossible.
Why is it that Governor Cuomo and other governors and mayors throughout the United States have permitted thousands of protestors to flood the streets in major cities with protestors who walk side by side without wearing masks? Yet Cuomo continues with his threats of shutting down churches or placing unreasonable extreme restrictions on places of worship.
God help all those who have ruled against this lawsuit that the Brooklyn Diocese has brought before the courts. It is reasonable and with just cause that places of worship should not be faced with the threats of being shut down and for placing unreasonable restrictions on places of worship where priests and parishioners are all practicing social distancing plus wearing a mask.
Is it asking for too much to permit at least half the percentage of seating capacity in places of worship? Is it unreasonable for places of worship to provide services even at full capacity if the seating is at least six feet apart plus wearing masks? No, it isn’t.
God Bless the bishop and the Diocese of Brooklyn for making this huge effort on behalf of thousands of parishioners who want to attend the Mass.
Stephanie Zito
Davenport, N.Y.
And for this Came I Into The World
Dear Editor: “What is truth?” That is a famous question from a well-known politician. It is, or should be, a burning question for the impending election, but it is shouldered aside by a host of other issues, and truth gets lost in the fog of debate and opinion.
Truth is nowhere in the mix. The air is so full of lies that we no longer notice them. And we can no longer talk to each other. Or we approve with the fatuous excuse that “Oh, it doesn’t matter, everybody lies.” But everybody doesn’t lie, and it does matter even if they do — especially if they do.
My mother used to say that you can trust a thief, but you can never trust a liar. Dante puts sins against truth in the lowest circles of Hell, below lust and violence.
Augustine and Aquinas write at great length about truth and sins against it. In the Passion narrative of John’s Gospel in his interrogation by the governor, Jesus says, “For this was I born, for this came I into the world: to bear witness to the truth.” Pontius Pilate responds with the cynical, “What is truth?” Do you know? Does it matter?
Peter P. Farley
Bay Ridge