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Freedom depends on truth
Editor: In the June 1996 issue of HPR, Kenneth Platt misreads my admonition that a couple should seek the assistance of a spiritual director when discerning the use of NFP. Such a recommendation is not proposed as an "objective norm," but merely as good common sense. No one disputes that it is ultimately the couple's decision to be made according to well-formed consciences.
The real point, which becomes blurred when one overemphasizes the couple's legitimate "freedom of decision," is that there are times when it is wrong to use NFP, i.e., when "serious reasons" are not present, when it is chosen selfishly, when the couple has a "contraceptive mentality," etc. The decision does not become right merely because the couple has made it, as though no objective principles apply.
An emphasis on the couple's freedom regarding NFP can thus be harmful to the couple's spiritual well-being unless it is also stressed that such freedom must be ordered to the truth (cf. Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, nos. 31-34).
Leon J. Suprenant, Jr.
Catholics United for the Faith
Steubenville, Ohio
Erich Fromm on mass culture
Editor: I enjoyed Dr. Donald DeMarco's article on the need for virtue in the June 1996 issue. He should, however, have warned the unwary that the late, charismatic, writer/psychologist, Erich Fromm, used his critique of modern mass culture in a phenomenological manner, i.e., as an opening to restructure society into a sort of weird, Marxist, pseudo-Freudian utopia; he was not particularly friendly to either religion or to sexual morality.
Kenneth Lynn
Pompano Beach, Fla.
Essential ends of marriage
Editor: An article entitled "The definition of marriage in the Code of Canon Law" in the June 1996 edition of HPR describes the procreation and upbringing of offspring as an essential end of marriage. The author then goes on to say that "if one were to exclude an essential end or an essential property from the agreed relationship the person would not be contracting marriage but another kind of relationship."
Now this concept does not seem to be entirely correct. To begin with, the procreation and upbringing of offspring is not per se an essential end of marriage in the sense that without so intending this in the marital rite, there can be no marriage. For example, couples who choose marriage but choose not to exercise their marital rights can be validly married, as in the case of St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin. Certainly they excluded procreation and the upbringing of their procreated offspring. Again couples can choose not to have offspring and practice a rhythm system for a lifetime if there is adequate reason not to have children and yet have valid marriages and their actions are licit. There are couples who have no adequate reason not to procreate but by mutual consent agree to practice a system of rhythm to exclude procreation for a lifetime and yet have valid marriages though the practice is illicit.
However, a unilateral decision by one or the other of the couple attempting marriage to practice a system of rhythm for a lifetime to avoid having offspring contrary to the wishes of the opposite party makes the marriage contract invalid. However, this is not because of the decision not to have children per se but because the marital right extends through the fertile period and limiting this right by such a unilateral intention at the time of the ceremony renders the contract invalid.
Much of this is covered by Pope Pius XII in his Address to Midwives.
Frank E. Wenzke, M.D.
Dayton, Ohio
A synonym for pride?
Editor: While enjoying Fr. Tom Morrow's article (January 1996) on "Love and Self-Love," I wonder about the use of the words of William Kirk Kilpatrick in saying, first of all, "we are of great worth." Man is the object of God's love, but does that make him so precious? Yes, we are made in God's image, but isn't the one of great worth the One in whose image we are made? Let's put the esteem where it belongs. Self-esteem is simply a synonym for P-R-I-D-E.
Again, Kilpatrick says "we ought to esteem ourselves as God esteems us." How does God esteem man? God said to St. Catherine of Siena, "You are the one who is not; I am the One Who Am." The Psalmist (61:10) says that all mankind on a balance scale is lighter than a breath of air. The scale goes up. Now that's not much worth!
Our Blessed Mother epitomizes the proper worth and esteem for all of us to emulate as she prayed in her Magnificat, "because he has regarded the 'lowliness' of his handmaid."
Edward A. Hummel
Green Bay, Wis.
Appropriate attire in church
Editor: Wearing appropriate clothes to Sunday Mass is a powerful witness to one's faith and love of God, but it is not always possible. Please don't forget that Catholics have a serious obligation to attend Mass. In order to fulfill this obligation I have ducked out of family reunions wearing barbecue-stained blue jeans, worn tired white uniforms after working night shifts or because I was on a lunch break during unavoidable shifts, and arrived late and poorly dressed because I was traveling and had difficulty locating a Catholic church for Mass. Teenagers who are badly dressed may be trying to deflect criticism from their friends who ridicule religion. Parents of small children often have little money for clothes and no time for dressing carefully. Young people need to be tolerant of senior citizens who drench themselves in perfume, wear clothes twenty years old, and whisper loudly enough to be heard by everyone.
It would be nice to have enough time, money, supportive friends and family, and understanding bosses to be able to attend Mass properly dressed every Sunday. People with these advantages should thank God for their blessings, rather than condemn their neighbors. Of course, an occasional sermon on appropriate behavior and attire in church might help. Please don't forget to mention the perfume. I can close my eyes but I've never learned how to stop breathing.
Martha Rasmussen
Denver, Colo.
Evening Mass on weekdays
Editor: I would like to suggest the idea that at least some churches have an evening Mass on weekdays (all year round and not just during Lent) because for those who have to leave early for work and do not have a noon Mass near where they work, this may be the only way they can go to daily Mass. Near where I live, there is a church with an evening Mass on Monday through Thursday. If it had not had an evening Mass, I might never have gotten in the habit of going to daily Mass. Furthermore, many who do not live in that parish come to that church for the evening Mass because it has one.
Furthermore, I would like to suggest that in each deanery it be arranged that at least one church have an evening Mass on weekdays. I would also like to suggest that the daily Mass schedule of each parish in the deanery be published in the bulletin of each parish so that if one's own parish does not have daily Mass at a convenient time, one will know where to go if another parish does.
Steven F. Whitehead
Falls Church, Va.
The greatest preacher
America ever had
Editor: I would like to disagree with John H. Wright in his remarks about Archbishop Sheen (June, "Good Scriptural Preaching"). I listened to Bishop Sheen for fifty years and was always inspired by him. As a boy in Nebraska I heard him on the radio. He was on the Catholic Hour during Lent. We Catholics in our state were a small minority. What a joy to hear a brilliant speaker, especially when we had priests who preached in a very mediocre way. In the seminary I listened to him and thought him great and wrote for his sermons in pamphlet form. I read and re-read them many times. At Catholic University in the priests' hall we all made it to the TV room on Tuesday nights to hear Bishop Sheen. Everyone enjoyed him. In all that time and later in all the places I have been I have never heard anyone say, "Don't you love the way he flounces his cape?" And if his eyes were piercing, the same was said of Jesus.
The last time I heard Bishop Sheen was in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York at a Catholic Daughters convention. An archbishop spoke each evening at Mass. The first tried to be conversational and you could hardly hear him, the second read his talk and most people lost interest early on. Bishop Sheen spoke the third night and you could hear a pin drop. He came from the hospital accompanied by medical people, to keep his promise to preach. I so loved his sermon, I left the sanctuary and went out and sat in the pews so I could hear him better. He spoke beautifully of the three women at the foot of the cross. They came alive. It was magnificent. No wonder Billy Graham said he was the greatest preacher America ever had.
Fr. Rawley Myers
Colorado Springs, Colo.
Who cares about Latin?
Editor: In your May issue Thomas Storck argues forcefully for the restoration of Latin in the Church. It appears, however, that there is little or no chance of such restoration, because people in authority have no interest in bringing it about. In number 36 of Vatican II's Constitution on the Liturgy we read: "Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin Rite."
How many bishops and priests care about implementing that? Again, Canon 249 says that seminarians must become "well skilled in the Latin language." How many seminary rectors pay any heed?
Hilary Freeman, O.P.
River Forest, Ill.