To the Editor:
Re “Pope Francis Is Tearing the Catholic Church Apart,” by Michael Brendan Dougherty (Opinion visitor essay, nytimes.com, Aug. 12):
Pope Francis just isn’t destroying the Catholic Church. A gaggle rebelling towards Francis has seized on the Latin Mass as its image.
The issue with the Latin Mass is that it’s inherently sexist. Moreover, the priest stands along with his again to the congregation, mumbling in a lifeless language few perceive. The choir within the loft sings in the identical lifeless language. And the congregation occupies itself nevertheless it chooses, typically with an unrelated set of prayers.
The church moved ahead greater than 50 years in the past. The laggards want to affix the primary physique of the church.
Lisa Weber
Rosalia, Wash.
To the Editor:
Though the plaintive whining of Michael Brendan Dougherty consists of sure truths in regards to the magnificence and the cultural place of the Latin liturgy in centuries of Western artwork and worship, this child boomer — who nonetheless is aware of his Latin responses — couldn’t disagree extra that Pope Francis is destroying the church.
One needn’t agree with all of Francis’ reforms or ecclesiastical priorities and adjustments to acknowledge that he’s calling all humanity — not simply the Catholic Church — to a deeper consciousness of a shared love and important dedication to the fantastic thing about creation and absolutely the necessity of reordering our priorities to protect human life on this planet.
The e-book of creation is the primary incarnation of God on the earth, and Francis admonishes all to acknowledge this.
Don’t get so myopic and please desist the liturgical wars, Mr. Dougherty, and commit your self and your fellow worshipers to the values celebrated within the encyclical “Laudato Si” and to absolutely the necessity of working towards preserving this stunning planet for all of God’s creation.
Dave Pasinski
Fayetteville, N.Y.
The author is a former Catholic priest.
To the Editor:
There was a Latin Mass group worshiping now in its fourth church in Jersey Metropolis, N.J., for over twenty years. Most of them don’t dwell within the space and even the state.
They promise to boost cash for the church and don’t. They bring about in so many outdated vessels, vestments and statuary to decorate up the sanctuary akin to a museum mounting. And that’s the atmosphere they convey: The church has moved on, however they need “their” personal church.
However conserving externals is just a part of their downside. They divide the local people by asking for extra fascinating time slots and don’t combine into the neighborhood. And their ecclesiology just isn’t solely anti-Francis but additionally unreal.
The church has moved on to a extra inclusive, communal expertise; they haven’t. Pope Francis’ transfer to restrict its use was wanted to jolt them from their fantasies. Come again to earth. Heaven can wait.
Alexander M. Santora
Hoboken, N.J.
The author is pastor of the Church of Our Girl of Grace and St. Joseph in Hoboken, N.J., and dean of the world’s Catholics.
To the Editor:
Devotees of the outdated Latin Mass act as if its celebration goes again to Jesus Christ Himself. In truth, it was a product of the Sixteenth-century Council of Trent. As a response to the Protestant Reformation, its objective was to standardize liturgical observe and affirm precisely how Roman Catholics had been to worship.
Throughout the mid-Nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a lot educational analysis was being carried out to find out how the earliest Christians worshiped. The Mass that emerged from Vatican II was the product of that scholarship.
Thus, it was not, as Michael Brendan Dougherty states, “the worst spasm of iconoclasm within the church’s historical past.” In truth, it was a restoration.
Pope Francis just isn’t tearing the Catholic Church aside. He’s reaffirming the authenticity of the present ceremony and attempting to bridge divisions which have arisen as a result of some are nostalgic for a 500-year-old relic.
Marion Eagen
Clarks Inexperienced, Pa.
A Physician’s Household: We Stay and Breathe ‘Covid Ideas’
To the Editor:
Re “Time Is Winding Down on Those Pandemic Pods” (Thursday Kinds, Aug. 12):
These pandemic pods you interviewed had been fortunate to have each other. However for many people, our expertise couldn’t have been extra completely different.
For a lot of medical households, resembling mine, there have been no pandemic pods. To start with, we — my husband, an emergency drugs doctor, and I — questioned whether or not he ought to sleep individually in order to not danger exposing me, on immunosuppressive remedy, or our kids.
We so feared whether or not we’d unfold the virus, even asymptomatically, to others that for a lot of months nobody entered our house, save a number of quick (masked) visits with my father. I didn’t see my mom, on hospice in an assisted residing facility, for six months till we had been each totally vaccinated.
It has been an emotionally isolating expertise, as properly: These outdoors of medication do not know what households like ours expertise, that we dwell and breathe “Covid ideas” from morning to nighttime. There are by no means any carefree “sport nights, UberEats banquets” or street journeys. There isn’t any choice of taking day without work to recharge, and even to atone for sleep. The work continues.
To these with the privilege of a circle of family members round them to climate this mess: Cherish them. I’m glad you may have been supported. However lest we wax too philosophically in regards to the social teams that sustained us by the pandemic, let’s be sure we’re actually out of it first.
As we ponder the following steps earlier than us, there is just one factor that issues. Get your rattling shot. In the event you’ve had yours, thanks. Now please go assist two extra individuals get theirs. I can’t consider a greater approach to convey again the promise of intimacy with our family and friends.
Anna Stoetzer
Seattle