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Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

LETTERS
JANUARY 1999

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JESUIT DEFENDS GAY/BISEXUAL GROUP

I am writing this letter in response to a news short in your November issue regarding the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Student group at USF. I am writing this letter exclusively upon my own behalf, and do not purport to represent any opinion other than my own.

I must admit to being appalled that you would print the clearly ill-informed and distorting comments of the "concerned student." I was at this meeting, and the reporting in the news item misrepresented both the content of the meeting and the character of the participants. Such ill-considered observations about this organization(not to mention USF) contribute to an atmosphere of hostility towards gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender people, all the more shocking in light of the vicious homophobic crimes committed against a 21-year-old gay college student, Matthew Shepard, so recently. Matthew died of the injuries sustained in the attack. A significant motivation for the violence against him was the fact that he was gay and seen as evil and expendable by his attackers.

Horrendous in themselves, the fact that these remarks were directed towards our youth, who have a hard enough time as it is and are at such risk, is particularly disturbing.

There is nothing of Christ nor of His Church in such demonizing judgments. I would hope that this "concerned student" has received appropriate counsel for his/her damaging remarks, the sentiments of which are completely contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, the teachings of the magisterium and the mission of a Roman Catholic university. Further, I call to conscience those who might have taught this student to see the world and our lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual brothers and sisters in Christ in such a denigratory light.

Finally, I beg you, please, stop featuring such inappropriate articles. They are divisive and soul-disfiguring. We are all made in God's very image and likeness -- give all your brothers and sisters in the Lord the respect they intrinsically deserve.

Mark Ciccone, S.J.
San Francisco


QUESTIONING MEDJUGORJE IS COURAGEOUS

I applaud your courage in printing "Medjugorje: Fact or Fraud." So many of our orthodox brethren(especially our charismatic community) have embraced Medjugorje that it is definitely "taking a risk" to challenge the authenticity of the apparitions.

I am reminded that satan does not care how we err, only that we err. He's happy to accommodate our personal preferences!

Kate Sciacca
Fairfield


DON'T BLAME CLERGY FOR FLABBY CATHOLIC CULTURE

Although agreeing with Mr. Kevin Starr's assessment of the current lack of awareness in California regarding our state's Catholic roots and depth of Catholic Culture ("A Civilization Lost," December 1998), I disagree profoundly with him regarding its cause. Mr. Starr is quoted as blaming the clergy for this problem. I don't think we should single out the clergy within the Church for special blame. We are all seriously infected with materialism and a very weak faith. This is why our California Catholic culture is so flabby and dull. I am just about a decade younger than Mr. Starr. My working class peers and I received a very solid Catholic teaching from grade school to university. If anyone in our golden generation of California Catholics didn't, it was because they refused to accept it. Where are we now? Where are the great cultural works we should have produced? The great Catholic institutions and associations we should have formed? Where are the great social reforms we should have lead? Where are the great public officials we should have elected? They are, on the whole, nowhere to be seen, and if we continue to obtusely blame the clergy for our own sloth, we will be sitting in hell before any of the great promises of our generation are ever fulfilled.

In nineteenth-century Ireland it was not the Catholic clergy that organized and lead the great civil rights struggle that produced Catholic emancipation. Nor was it to the clergy that Our Lady appeared at Guadalupe, Lourdes, Fatima or Medjugorgje, but rather it was the Catholic laity who bore the responsibility in each of these cases. In twenty-first century California, if Catholic culture is to flourish, our privileged generation of Catholic laity must act with courage, wisdom and charity. We have been given the gifts of Catholic faith and culture. Let's produce the fruits.

Raymond Frost
Daly City

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