Dear Editor: I am shocked and saddened that The Tablet would offer a platform not once but twice to letters (Aug. 6 and July 13) that both fed venomous stereotypes about immigrants and refugees. I am a career journalist, a political conservative and a cradle Catholic, and I can find no possible justification for publishing these vile sentiments, which are profoundly at odds with our own pope’s and bishops’ declared stance on the urgent need to see Christ in our brothers and sisters in other faiths and countries. Not even the presumptive defense that he is “quoting from ISIS itself” can make this fit for my parish or my home.
Forget for a moment that actual refugees from Syria are being allowed in only after scrutiny; the letter writer shamelessly conflates refugees and presumably Muslim immigrants with the murdering monsters of ISIS. In his previous letter, he scorns “these new immigrants” who “insist on their own flags and language.” One letter reads, “This is not bigotry.” It is the most loathsome bigotry, and ignorance to boot.
I would be deeply ashamed to have any non-Catholic, or any Catholic from another diocese, read these letters and imagine they fell within the realm of reasonable discussion by people of our faith. It is not enough to say “Letters to the editor do not represent the views of the paper.”
Brenda Becker Walker
Flatbush
Thank you, Barbara Becker Walker, for saying what seems obvious to me. Many comments published here are un-Christian in sentiment. I, too, would be embarrassed to have a non-Catholic read some of the readers’ comments published by this Catholic newspaper. By providing a platform for such commentary the Tablet is giving its approval of the message.