Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

WCR Letters to the Editor

Church values interchurch marriages

Mr. Hala may well find interchurch marriages "difficult and undesirable." We, and thousands of interchurch couples in Canada and around the world, do not agree. Occasionally we do indeed find our situations difficult, as we face misunderstanding and even condemnation from our fellow Christians.

We cannot, however, imagine our relationship of love with our spouses being in any way undesirable. Instead, we find our marriages more accurately reflected in the words of Pope John Paul to interchurch families at York in England, 1984: "You live in your marriages the hopes and difficulties of the path to Christian unity."

In response to Mr. Hala's obvious doubts about the blessings of double belonging, of being signs and examples of unity, allow us to share some of the insights from the Catholic Church around the world.

In speaking of interchurch marriages, we are told they "contain numerous elements that could well be made good use of and developed both for their intrinsic value and for the contribution they can make to the ecumenical movement. This is particularly true when both parties are faithful to their religious duties" (Familiaris Consortio, no. 78).

It is no wonder the Archdiocese of Brisbane, speaking of the 1993 Directory on Ecumenism, indicates "it sees such couples making a significant contribution to the ecumenical movement."

In their statement, Guidelines for Ecumenism, the Indian Catholic bishops' Commission for Ecumenism and Dialogue speak of our "sense of joy at being able to present to the community an example of ecumenical life at its deepest form."

They know that "families with mixed Christian traditions have a special responsibility to offer an example of unity of mind and heart in spite of ecclesial differences and the belonging to different communities. They can thus offer a shining example of the depth of Christian faith and love, and inspire the wider community to live in harmony and respect for the conscience of each person, in spite of religious differences."

Clearly the Church sees value in interchurch marriages.

It is to enable interchurch families, and their churches, to discover and celebrate the richness each spouse brings to the domestic church of their marriage, and to the churches of which they form a part, that the Canadian Association of Interchurch Families is hosting the 10th international conference of interchurch families in Edmonton Aug. 1-6. We invite your readers to consider participating in that conference.

Ray & Fenella Temmerman
Morden, Man.

Reason to be skeptical of global warming

Moore calls skepticism on this issue "quaint" and claims skeptical climatologists are "cranks," citing reports by the UN Panel on Climate Change as if these were wholly objective gospel truth.

I recently studied the issue of global warming in a U of A political science course called, tellingly, The Science and Politics of the Environment.

What we found is that, in common with other environmental and wildlife groups, NGOs, and the UN generally, the level of public support and funding for groups involved with global warming increases directly with these groups' ability to convince the public that global warming is real, bad and there is something we can do about it.

In fact the science on global warming is ambiguous at best and the data in no way prove that greenhouse gases such as CO2 cause global warming.

For example, recent data show that in high CO2 environments plants can grow at up to three times their normal growth rates. Plants consume CO2 as food and thrive in a CO2-rich environment, effectively counteracting the greenhouse effect of human release of CO2 from burning coal and other fossil fuels.

This "carbon sink" effect is discounted in UN models of climate change, so the models will predict radically higher greenhouse effects than actually exist in the real environment.

However, it is in the personal interest of all those UN scientists and bureaucrats to convince us (and themselves) that global warming is real, otherwise the public would feel no urgent need to maintain their funding levels.

This is the politics of global warming.

Moore also claims "dealing with global warming is going to require some radical lifestyle changes," and I suspect this might motivate Moore's readiness to believe in global warming.

Derryl Hermanutz
Spruce Grove

Men also need to be humble

God the Creator, wonderful master of the universe, is a hopeless romantic. Everything he created, he saw that it was good.

He created the women endowing them with many wonderful attributes and qualities, one of them being physically attractive to men. Too many men look at women as mere sex objects and ignore their most important qualities.

Economic factors, dominated by men, often force women into prostitution. If men would stop prostituting the prostitutes, there would be no prostitution. If men would be more responsible husbands and fathers, there would be fewer single mothers, fewer poor women.

The Adam and Eve story is often used to blame women. The fact of the matter is, this story tells us that men's fundamental weakness is "matter over mind." The Bible seems to confirm this wherein the wisdom of God is referred to as being feminine.

If women are equal before God, why can't men let them play equal roles?

John Kloster
Edmonton

An article with power and punch

An excellent contribution by Bishop Henry chastising JeanChretien's and Joe Clark's pro-choice statements on abortion during the federal election campaign. What an embarrassment such politicians are to the Church!

I recently attended a men's retreat in Edmonton led by Archbishop Thomas Collins. He urged us to be informed about our Catholic faith through reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Vatican II documents, Scripture, writings of Pope John Paul and the saints.

I felt challenged to probe deeper into the truth of Catholic teaching. If our shepherds reached the young (prospective vocation candidates) with a strong challenge to learn and love Catholic truth regarding faith, morals, liturgy, etc., is it possible there might be an increase of religious vocations?

I anxiously await more articles by our religious leaders that contain power and punch to explain truth.

Jack Mallett
Brightsand, Sask.