Letters

Courageous example

Raymond De Souza

Contents - Jul 2005 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Can Catholic "salt" flavour the secular culture? - Michael Gilchrist Christianity: Church challenges secular culture of Europe - Peter Westmore News: The Church Around the World Year of Eucharist: The Eucharist: heart of our faith - Cardinal George Pell Society: Catholics must play an active role in public life - Archbishop Charles J. Chaput OFM Cap Rockhampton: Year of the Eucharist: a time for clear thinking - AD2000 REPORT Evangelisation: Why many Catholics join fundamentalist sects - Frank Mobbs Vocations: John Paul Il's Milwaukee connection - Fr John Walter Man of the Year: How John Paul II converted a 'Time' journalist - NewsMax.com Living Stones: Church architecture: can a sense of the sacred be recovered? - Christian Xavier Science: God, physics and Stephen Hawking - Fr Matthew Kirby Letters: Courageous example - Raymond De Souza Letters: Silent apostasy - Fr. G.H. Duggan SM Letters: Hard teachings - Dr Arnold Jago Letters: More priests needed - Jenny Bruty Letters: Reverent silence - Rosemary Chandler Events: St Patrick's Cathedral Latin Mass 16 July Letters: Ecumenism or Indifferentism - Edgar Bremmer Letters: Confession 'Sin bin' - P.W. English Letters: Need help with home education? Letters: Latin-English Hymnbook and CD - Veronic Brandt Books: Letters To a Young Catholic, by George Weigel - David Birch (reviewer) Books: The Catholic Community in Australia, by Robert E. Dixon - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: More Good Reading from AD Books Reflecton: The soul: what reason and revelation tell us - John Young

The news that "US College loses Catholic label" (June AD2000) offered encouragement that at least some American Bishops are - finally! - starting to pull up their socks and do their job as guardians of the Faith. Marymount Manhattan College was formally dropped as a Catholic institution because it intended to give Senator Hillary Clinton an honorary doctoral degree.

Many American bishops seem to have forgotten that their mission is not only to act as priests in confecting sacraments, but also in teaching the fullness of Christ's doctrine to the people as well as guiding them through the power of governance that is inherent to the episcopate.

The removal of the title "Catholic" is indeed an excellent way to safeguard the faith of the people, especially the young, who are dropping out of the Church as they leave school at a rate of 95 per cent or more in Australia.

It is to be hoped that the Australian bishops will seriously consider following the courageous - and outstanding - example of their American counterparts, and remove the title "Catholic" from universities and high schools guilty of systematic failure in teaching Catholicism to Catholics.

It would be much better for all concerned if bishops were to inform parents that their children are enrolled in a private school, but no longer a Catholic one. In this way, at least, parents would no longer be deceived in continuing to pay for a Catholic education for their children - while getting none.

Let us pray for our bishops, our universities and high schools, so that they may always endeavour to do God's will.

RAYMOND DE SOUZA
Perth, WA

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 18 No 6 (July 2005), p. 15