Dear Mr. Ralph McInery;
I have been a subscriber for a few years and enjoy your Father Dowling Mystery’s
very much. I try to read as many articles as I can in the Dossier
magazine but sometimes I lose track of the main point of the article and just
stop and try another article. This has been different in the last issue of
Dossier, The Crusades. I have read all the articles and was able to
understand the main point of each one. I hope you, as editor, have helped with
the ease of understanding this issue.
Keep up the good work. Thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
Gene Cichowicz
Perennial Yet
Contemporary and What If
Dear Editor,
Three cheers for the Crusaders and for your Crusades issue! I learned more in
that issue than I have learned in years reading a magazine. And what timing,
with the subject of Islam and the West headlining the newspapers. Usually, I
think of Dossier as anything but timely. I read lots of periodicals for
current events and I read Dossier for its treatment of perennial themes.
This time, I was able to glean from the magazine information about both. The
Crusades issue helped to put the contemporary situation into context for me.
Thanks very much.
Respectfully yours,
Jeff Smith
Detroit, MI
P.S. The Crusades pose one of
those classic historical “what ifs.” What if the Crusades had been more
successful and Christians had retained control of the Holy Land? How different
would things be today?
Now That He’s Up
Off the Floor
Dear Dossier,
I don’t think Mr. Tracy intended it, but his letter (“Reform or Revolt?,
January/February, 2002) had me rolling on the floor in laughter. Fortunately, I
have managed to pick myself up. I assume you guys don’t get these crazy,
right-wing people to write in order to make them look foolish, but you couldn’t
do a better job of it if you did. Give me a break. I love and revere the Latin
Mass as much as the next guy, but really Mr. Tracy. Do you really think the Mass
of Paul VI (as it is sometimes called) is a Modernist Mass? There’s nothing
Modernist about it. It’s widely abused, that’s true. But that doesn’t make the
liturgy itself Modernist. One can raise questions about whether certain changes
introduced best reflect the liturgical principles envisioned by Vatican II. But,
again, that doesn’t make the Missal of 1969 Modernist. It’s precisely your kind
of extremist talk, Mr. Tracy, which makes it harder for us to have a genuine
reform of the renewal.
Sincerely in the Faith
(that’s the True Faith, Mr. Tracy),
Bill Landry
Atlanta, GA
The Gloves Were Off
Dear Editor,
Thanks for taking the gloves off in the Crusades issue. I’m a peaceful
man—indeed, I was a peace activist years ago, but I was no pacifist. I don’t
think a Christian involved with the world as most of us are called to be can
afford the luxury of pacifism. The question is, When should be fight? When are
we justified to fight? The case for the justice of the Crusades was well made by
your authors.
Sincerely,
M. Hough
