LETTERS

ARTICLES

NEWS

FOLLOW ME

ROAMIN' CATHOLIC






Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

LETTERS
JULY/AUGUST 1999

---

WHY NO MENTION OF MEDJUGORJE FRUITS?

The May issue of San Francisco Faith presented another one-sided, critical article on Medjugorje, repeating the same old false cliches [see "The Enigma of Medjugorje", May Faith]. Criticism is given that the messages are too cataclysmic. The writers must not be aware of the messages of Fatima and Akita. Our Lady is claimed by the writers to be elevated above her Son. If true, why are there so many daily masses, daily adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, daily confessions there? Our Lady stresses that the Holy Mass is the greatest source of graces. The Franciscans at Medjugorje are not schismatic. Fathers Jozo, Barbaric, and Slavko are all very loyal, holy and exemplary priests.

No mention is made of Medjugorje's fruits: endless confession lines, many people returning to the Church, increases in religious vocations (the Archbishop of Vienna publiclly stated that most, if not all, of the new vocations in his diocese were a fruit of Medjugorje.) No mention is made of the hundreds of priests, bishops and even cardinals who visit and come back greatly inspired.

Your last couple of issues advertise the Marian Eucharistic Conference in Paso Robles. It lists David Parkes from Ireland as being miraculously healed of Chron's disease. This occurred in Medjugorje where his faith was restored as well. Larry and Joetta Lewis are listed as recent Catholic converts (Larry Lewis being a former Protestant minister). Again, it happened in Medjugorje! Why not send someone down to the conference to get their stories for your readership?

M.J. McLauchlin
Livermore


FATHER SCALIA NITPICKING

I am still on your mailing list after repeatedly asking to be taken off. Your insistence on sending me your paper would seem to indicate that you feel you have "THE TRUTH" and need to propagate it among us bad Catholics.

In our following our Pope and Bishops' liturgical leadership we have enjoyed renewal in our liturgy that has brought a more open and close relationship to God. This has enriched the lives of many Catholics. You seem unable to accept the teaching of our magisterium.

The front-page article in your June issue of Faith, on liturgical music, I found to be very opinionated and divisive [see "Why Do We Sing of Ourselves?", June Faith]. Your writer, Fr. Scalia, complains that we are singing God's part and have no business doing so.

Please look again at the songs "psalms" of David! He complains that we are being self-centered in the words "I myself am the bread of life, you and I are the bread of life taken and blessed, broken and shared by Christ that the world may live." Another view of those lines may see them speaking to our call to carry Christ in evangelization to our world!

Please consider the damage you are doing to our church with this nit picking. And look again at the ad you ran for the Oxford Review. This is not building up the church of Christ. This is not respecting the individual responses of the people of God. This is destructive and you should examine what you are doing.

Sincerely,

Terry Snider


WONDERFUL PEOPLE

Thank you so much for publishing Dave Leatherby's letter to the editor. Dave and his family are wonderful people, and his service to the Church and community is well known.

Thanks again for publishing his letter.

Trish Harrison
Fair Oaks, Ca.


I AM DOCUMENT SOURCE

Even Stephen Schwartz, known for his dislike of the Croatian government, Croatian leadership, and Bosnian Catholics in general, had to reach to connect the University of San Francisco to the University of Mostar [see "Croatian Chic", May Faith]. The University of Mostar was the only institution of higher learning in Bosnia-Hercegovina that remained open throughout the Bosnian war and the only one not now controlled by the Muslim-dominated Federation government. That government's Education Minister, Fahrudin Rizvanbegovic, has so totally politicized education that the European Council on Education's Renne Kollwelter has recommended that no history after 1900 be taught at any level in Bosnia-Hercegovina. High Representative Carlos Westendorp agreed and made the dropping of history instruction a requirement to join the European Council. The University of Mostar is the only independent university in Bosnia-Hercegovina and the only one with a predominantly Catholic student body.

The article first labels the University of Mostar as "the only racist university in the world," in itself an odd statement since Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim Bosnians are all of the same race. The quote is attributed to "one Bosnian scholar and teacher who requested anonymity." How convenient that of three quotes in the entire article, all are anonymous. Throughout the article "university" is in quotes and the author implies that it is not a recognized institution. He even takes the Rektor, Dr. Zdenko Kordic, to task for being a professor of engineering rather than a "humanistic scholar." As the author points out, the University is guilty of conducting instruction in Croatian, one of the three languages of Bosnia-Hercegovina. Mostar is the only institution in the country where instruction is given in the Croatian language. Despite the author's attempts to link even the language to World War II fascists, Croatian has been a recognized literary language since the XV century. While condemning the university for teaching English and German, two languages essential for the future of central Europe, the author overlooked the fact that Latin is also taught.

The University is a member of the Association of European Universities, the Rector's Conference, and EUCEN-European Universities Continuing Education Network. Mostar has academic cooperation agreements with the Universities of Zagreb, Loeben, Maribor, and Florence which heads a seven-member consortium of European universities dedicated to re-building the school and its destroyed 80,000 volume library.

As for Rektor Kordic's credentials, he holds a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, was appointed full professor at Mostar in 1990, two years before the war started in Bosnia, and is the former Assistant Minister of Education, Science, and Culture of Bosnia. He is the author of some eighty scientific and professional papers and a book on engineering.

Finally, the supposed point of the article was that USF is "supporting" the University of Mostar as evidenced by a "document" signed by the University's President which hailed the University as "a contributor to Bosnia's reconstruction," and thus was a USF "endorsement." The author had obviously read the document in great detail, but chose not to reveal its exact nature. What was this document that so inflamed Mr. Schwartz that he would tar two institutions on two continents with the brush of racism? I must confess that I am the source of the "document."

I am a twenty-year USF employee and a specialist in Croatian Studies. During and since the wars waged against Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina, I visited every university in both countries that remained open, including the University of Mostar. The document in question was one of several glorified greeting cards that I delivered to institutions and individuals. I am also guilty of giving dozens of USF lapel pins to adults and "USF Dons" pennants to children. The offending greeting read: "The University of San Francisco of the Society of Jesus brings fraternal greetings and cordial salutations!" The final line of the one-page greeting that so offended Mr. Schwartz extended USF's "earnest prayers and best wishes for the success of the University of Mostar's endeavors toward the firm establishment of enduring equality, peace, and justice for all of the peoples of Bosnia-Hercegovina." These were the words that unleashed Mr. Schwartz's hysteria against the Universities of San Francisco and Mostar.

Michael McAdams

Regional Director

University of San Francisco
Sacramento Regional Campus


STEPHEN SCHWARTZ RESPONDS:

Mr. McAdams is quite correct that my criticism is based on the phrase claiming the so-called "University" of Mostar is engaged in: "endeavors toward the firm establishment of enduring equality, peace, and justice for all of the peoples of Bosnia-Hercegovina." But he will not admit that this statement, when applied to the so-called "University," is a flagrant and outrageous lie. The so-called "University" of Mostar is engaged in exactly the opposite of what is claimed in the cited phrase; it is committed to enduring inequality between Croats and the Muslim victims of their "ethnic cleansing" of Western Hercegovina, enduring mutual suspicion, hatred, and terrorism on the part of Croats against the same Muslim victims in the same region, and a complete denial of justice for anybody Western Hercegovina but Croats loyal to the local Croatian ultranationalist mafia.

Mr. McAdams knows very well that the Croatian enclave of Western Hercegovina is an "ethnically-cleansed" area from which Muslims and Serbs have been systematically expelled and to which they are continually prevented from returning. It is on his conscience that he chooses to deny this. He also knows that my use of anonymous sources is made necessary by threats of violence against those, myself included, who expose these crimes.

I resent and reject the charge that I am "against Bosnian Catholics in general." I am quite for those Bosnian Catholics who, in the spirit of four centuries of Bosnian Catholic history, defend a single, unitary Bosnia and Hercegovina extending to the Drina. And those Bosnian Catholics are the majority of that community.

I am quite proud to stand as a critic of the corrupt Croatian regime of General Tudjman and his Bosnian stooges. The great majority of ordinary Croats in Croatia agree with me in this stance. Mr. McAdams knows this as well.

TOP