Letters to the Editor

Submit a letter to the editor electronically | For our letter writing policy, click here

No letters were published this week; here are the letters from three weeks ago:

Organization’s suggestions miss the point on true meaning of Lent, reader says

I have to say that this is the first time that I have written a letter to the editor, but I feel that the truth must be proclaimed when the season of Lent is being blatantly co-opted by the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change (“Lenten sacrifice: time to give up plastic bags or incandescent bulbs?” in the March 4 issue of The Criterion).

I question the motives of this so-called “Catholic” organization and its executive director, Dan Misleh, who would state that Lent is for protecting the Earth through “sacrificial steps to save the planet.”

With that said, I do know that God expects all of his people to protect and use his gift of creation and the Earth in a responsible way, but to take Lent and make “sacrificial” offerings that include the use of specific light bulbs, etc.—as the article pointed out—is an abomination and should not be included with Lent.

Faithful Catholics need to look to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and focus on what Lent really means, which is the liturgical season of 40 days which begins with Ash Wednesday and ends with the celebration of the paschal mystery (Easter Triduum). Lent is the primary penitential season in the Church’s liturgical year, reflecting the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert in fasting and prayer.

The article also insinuates that Catholics simply just give up chocolate and ice cream, when I think Lent should be a time to enter into a more personal relationship with Jesus Christ as I heard during a Sunday sermon. Or, as Father John Corapi strongly suggests on his website, to spend an hour each day during the Lenten season to learn your faith by studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

- Margaret Farney, Indianapolis

Are recommendations from Coalition on Climate Change what Pope Benedict XVI has in mind?

While Pope Benedict XVI urges care for creation, I doubt whether he had the recommendations of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change in mind.

Their advice to fast from paper plates and plastic bags for Lent in a Catholic News Service article, which you published in the March 6 issue of The Criterion, makes me wonder if these folks are familiar with Zechariah 7:5: “... was it really for me that you did this?”

- Colleen Butler, Indianapolis