Dear Editor: Well do I know the meaning of Non scholae sed vitae (“Readers’ Forum,” March 23), having proudly sent not one but two boys to the school which still calls itself Stanner High as well as Archbishop Molloy.

I also have great respect for men who, along with a full lay life, also dedicate much (most?) of their lives to serving the Church and her people, so thanks for your service, Deacon Jorge. I also agree with the good deacon in his opinion of the recent actions of our Stanner alum who currently occupies the governor’s mansion in Albany. I am more than sure that the excellent Marist Brothers in Briarwood never taught the governor that any form of abortion, let alone last-trimester procedures, was in any way acceptable morally.

However, I am also sad to see extreme pseudo-sanctification measures being applied to any living human being, unless that person truly has nothing at all to gain in this life from such adulation. We should not be going from saying that the Democratic Party has put God “out of fashion” to calling President Trump a possible gift from God (not the deacon’s words). What I am referring to here is a recent comment which has been attributed to our Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. I pray that such a statement as, “As a Christian, I certainly believe that’s possible” was not really given by the honorable Secretary when he was asked by an interviewer for the Christian Broadcasting Network whether he thought that our President “has been sort of raised for such a time as this, just like Queen Esther, to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace.”

Granted that President Trump is stalwart in his defense of pre-born life, and in defending private religious practices. Yet, the bar to true sainthood is, and should always be, much higher than that. President Trump is no second-coming of Moses (or Esther) to save Israel. A good man – that depends upon your political viewpoint – but not even the most fervent of our evangelical sisters or brothers should yet call him “God’s gift ” to anyone or to any country.

Garrett Dempsey

Whitestone