Letters to the Editor

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No letters were printed this week; here is the letter from two weeks ago:

We must elect candidates who will represent our positions, reader says

I am a member of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Morris. I come from a Catholic family of 10 (eight children) that grew up in this small community.

We all pretty well cut our teeth, so to speak, on the Baltimore Catechism. Does this make me a good Catholic? Not necessarily, and I don’t claim to be a model Catholic. I do believe in our Church teachings and what they stand for.

I think that we as Catholics have drifted away from understanding and living up to our responsibilities to our faith. The teachings remain the same, the Bible remains the same, but we have tried to rationalize or interpret things to fit our personal or social needs.

Too many times in the past 50 to 60 years, things have changed and continue to change that are contrary to Church teachings, and we come to accept them as normal or simply changing times.

Most recently with the right-to-life marches, it stirred my thoughts again on the subject of abortion, and how did we get to where we are today in 2020?

I’m definitely pro-life, and the peaceful right-to-life marches and peaceful prayers offered outside of Planned Parenthood are good to help change the minds of some people. But I keep going back to how we got here.

It came about because of political choices made by the citizens, which includes Catholics and other Christians. The future choices can change things.

We as Catholics and Christians can do a better job of voting for the candidates that will represent our position on abortion and other social issues.

Our means of changing these things is at the ballot box. Ask yourself: “Does the person I’m choosing for president or my representative support life or abortion?” The question is not a difficult one.

This brings me to another point: I do not believe that our Catholic leaders take an adequate or strong enough approach in conveying in no uncertain terms what should be supported—not only on right to life but with some of the social issues that conflict with Church teachings.

This is what is expected of leaders.

- John L. Glaub | Batesville