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L e t t e r s
Invincible vs. Crass Ignorance
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This Rock
Volume x, Number x
 January 2004 
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I wanted to send you a personal note of appreciation for all the fine work you have been doing with Catholic Answers. In your frontispiece article-in which you take to task an unnamed Catholic author for saying that forgetting to go to Mass on Sunday is a mortal sin ("Forget Mass? Not a Mortal Sin," November 2003)-you forgot a critical element in the evaluation of the morality of this action. You appear to assume that the ignorance the person has was truly invincible ignorance.
In the situation you described, the ignorance about which day of the week it was seems much more likely to be crass ignorance, for which we are responsible. This ignorance is especially culpable when it involves as easly a corrected confusion as which day of the week it is and when it involves a matter as serious as our weekly attendance at the holy sacrifice of the Mass, which is both a commandment and a precept of the Chruch.
Yes, some people do have scruples in this area. But I'm afraid the vast majority of people today are lax. Keep up the good work!
Fr. Kevin Beres
Springfield, Virginia
Surprised and Perplexed
I was surprised and perplexed when I read articles about Pope John Paul II with an overall negative impression I would not have expected from your wonderful publication ("’The Great’?" October 2003).
When John Paul II came to Rome he had pretty much everyone against him, yet within ten years the complexion of Rome was one of orthodoxy again. Perhaps the Pope, who cannot do all the research on potential bishops himself, has simply had candidates to choose from who were less than first-class.
No one can do it all, and we’ve been very fortunate to have a Pope who is another Aquinas and is devoted to our Lady and her Son totally, as evidenced in his motto.
Congratulations on such upbeat handling of subjects such as the priests scandal, navigated with masterful perspective on your part. I would have liked to have come away with the same hope for the future after reading about John Paul II’s legacy. To my sorrow, I did not.
—Mimi Kelly
Riverside, Illinois
Bravo, Fr. Harrison
I think Fr. Brian Harrison is truly orthodox, and now, after his article in your magazine ("Will John Paul II Be Styled ‘the Great’?" October 2003), he needs our prayers and support. This has been a long time coming, and it was bound to come about sooner or later. Seeing Pope John Paul II kiss the Qur’an was shocking for me, and ever since I’ve had a great concern for the Church that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ gave us. Fr. Harrison, keep on answering the call.
—James M. Puglisi
via the Internet
Verbal Confusion
The points made in Kenneth Howell’s Step by Step ("Is Scripture Alone Sufficient?" October 2003) were well put and useful, with one exception: Dr. Howell knows the term oral, meaning that which is spoken, because he uses it twice in the final paragraph. Throughout the rest of the article, he repeatedly uses the ambiguous term verbal. That word refers to both the written and spoken word and, according to my dictionary, is used sometimes to refer specifically to oral communication "by confusion."
Confusion we don’t need in apologetics, and I suggest that, for the sake of clarity, the preferred terms should be written (Scripture) and oral (Tradition). Verbal we can probably do without.
—Dr. Diane Moczar
via the Internet
John Paul II among Breastfeeding Experts
Christopher West’s excellent article ("God, Sex, and Babies," November 2003) mentioned a couple who had "several children very close together." The mother felt overwhelmed. West attributes this to the fact that the husband "wouldn’t or couldn’t abstain."
While I certainly do not want to downplay the importance of self-mastery in a marriage, I also want to draw attention to another factor in this situation—a very early return of fertility after childbirth. The odds are overwhelming that the wife in this case was not following nature’s norm of ecological breastfeeding.
In our bottle-feeding society, we tend to forget that breastfeeding is the norm, and spacing children through breastfeeding is the norm by nature’s standards. Extended breastfeeding and extended amenorrhea (no menstrual cycles) constitute the norm. It is normal for a nursing mother to go one, two, or even three years without any menstrual periods.
There is a catch: The only type of breastfeeding that provides this type of breastfeeding infertility is ecological breastfeeding, a form of baby care marked by mother-baby togetherness and frequent suckling. On the average, American mothers who do ecological breastfeeding will experience their first period around 14-15 months postpartum.
The research has been done on the health benefits of breastfeeding. The experts have reviewed over 3,000 research articles and concluded that mothers, including American mothers, should breastfeed exclusively (no other liquids or foods) for at least 6 months and should continue to nurse their babies into their second year of life and beyond. Among those experts are John Paul II and his scientific advisors.
For those interested in learning more about breastfeeding infertility, more information can be obtained through the Couple to Couple League, 800-745-8252, or at their web site, ccli.org.
—Sheila Kippley
Cincinnati, Ohio
Kind Magazine, Kind Readers
Praying for you, your kind magazine, This Rock, and its readers and your mother country U.S.A., I am writing these few lines. Kindly keep me, my poor parishioners and villagers in your kind prayers and holy Mass.
A few months ago, you kindly published my "poignant plea" on our evangelization apostolate. On reading my plea in your magazine, about nine nice, Jesus-loving, church-loving, and souls-loving persons responded positively, and I got around $920. With your kind financial assistance, I could send several non-Christian families and persons to various retreat centers in Kerala for a weeklong retreat, prayer experience, and Bible studies. As a result, five non-Christian families are now preparing themselves to receive baptism and embrace the 2,000-year-old, holy, apostolic, and Catholic Church.
Surely you will meet these poor souls, whom you won for our Lord Jesus Christ, the God and the Savior, who really and truly died on the cross for the salvation of the whole world, in our eternal heavenly abode. Not only you and your kind magazine, but also your mother country U.S.A., will abundantly be blessed by God for the kind, souls-winning zealousness of your kind readers who contributed to our earnest evangelization apostolate.
If the spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ gives you a leading, kindly do publish this, my thanks-giving letter, in your magazine, This Rock.
—Fr. Thomas Thumpailchirayil
St. Mary’s Catholic Church
Mamankara – P.O. Kamblakkallu
Malappuram Dt., 67933, Kerala – S. India
Warmhearted Americans Flood Down Under with This Rocks
You published my request for any old This Rock magazines, in your July-August issue. The response I have received is almost unbelievable, and, although I have replied to many, I will find it hard to answer all. Americans have always been warmhearted and generous, so I would like to thank all of those who replied to my request through your magazine.
These magazines are being passed around our community, including our priests. One priest who knows me heard I had these magazines. He rang to see if I could let him have some. He lives 300 kilometers from me. These kindhearted people are in our prayers and Masses.
May God bless your magazine and all your readers. I wish you all a happy and holy Christmas.
—William Campbell
5 Aurel Rd.
Deans Marsh
Victoria, Australia 3235
A New Type of Crusade?
His Holiness John Paul II is a very great man and, from my far less than holy point of view, a very holy man ("Pope of Hope," October 2003). In his premature aging—caused in large part by an assassin’s attempt to kill him, by his strange isolation caused by both tradition and the forces of the Vatican bureaucracy and, chiefly, by his overwhelming duties—he has become forgetful of certain facts of history and their impact on the present world.
First, I note that the attempt on his life was instigated by atheist Communists who, being wise only in the affairs of this world, made their best choice of an assassin by selecting a person most likely to hate the Pope, the Christian churches and Western civilization: follower of Mohammed. Relying on the comments of medically knowledgeable persons, it appears that the head wound suffered by the Holy Father may have initiated or accelerated the tremors and other problems suffered by him.
As for things forgotten by John Paul II:
- That he comes from a race whose nobles, at one time in history, in church at the proclamation of the gospel would draw out and raise their swords as a sign of their willingness to defend and, if necessary, to die to protect that holy word;
- That Poles protected Poland and Slavic civilization from an attack by Swedes, especially at Yasna Gora;
- That, more importantly for Western civilization, stopped a Northern invasion of Mohammedan Turks at Chocim and, with German and other forces, at Vienna, which began the reconquest of much of Eastern Europe, a battle already won in the West by the Spanish Crusaders.
Lest we be condemned to repeat the lessons of history vis-ŕ-vis Mohammedan aggression, the Pope (John Paul II or his successor) and the Holy See should recall the prayerful courage of all of our Crusaders who fought and died to resist all evil aggression by the followers of Mohamed and Hitler.
Perhaps it is time for a new type of Crusade that does not forget that certain evils must be fought, prayerfully, on a physical and military level.
—James Pawlak
West Allis, Wisconsin
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