Community Is the Answer
Re “The Ability to Pray,” by Matt Malone, S.J. (Of Many Things, 2/18): Technology can be a great component of a parish outreach program, but it is not the answer to evangelization. Just as people are rarely attracted by dogma and doctrine, they need to find community and relationships when their driverless car ferries them to the door of church.
Mary Therese Lemanek
A Fresh Agenda
Re “The Tragedy of Abortion Absolutism and How the Pro-Life Movement Can Respond” (Our Take, 2/18): Thank you for providing an immensely better template for moving forward with a more holistic pro-life agenda. It is time to move on beyond the stale argument of being pro- or anti-abortion.
Gene Chabot
Keep Speaking Out
Re “A Call to Love,” by Olga Segura (2/18): I wish I could see my church at the forefront of the justice movements that Jesus brought to the world. I am truly grateful to all the Catholics working hard to bring justice to immigrants and people experiencing homelessness and those who joined and supported the Black Lives Matter movement. The color of someone’s skin should not either entitle one to a better life or trap one in suffering and systemic abuses. Keep speaking out. This is so important!
Robin Vestal
The Real M.L.K.
Re “Beyond the Dream: Taking Martin Luther King Jr. Out of the Box,” by Régine Michelle Jean-Charles (2/18): I have always found the later Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to be much more fascinating than his earlier self. And this was why his assassination was such an awful tragedy. Who knows what speeches he would have made that could have influenced not only the civil rights movement but all the other movements that were emerging in 1968.
Alvaro Bo
Where Was the Faculty?
Re “Why the MAGA Hats at the March for Life?” by Michael J. O’Loughlin (2/18): Bishop John Stowe is correct to question why “Make America Great Again” hats were on show at the March for Life. I have to ask: Where were the faculty members who went on this trip? Where were the chaperones who allowed the students to wear the hats while they were representing the school? If the students wore anything, it should have been their school colors. This was a school-sponsored trip.
Rudolph Koser
Enlightenment
Re “Ignatian Yoga,” by Joe Hoover, S.J. (2/18): What Brother Hoover stated is true: Most yoga in the United States is gym yoga, a workout more than anything. I have been doing yoga on my own for the last 20 years. Can it be spiritual? Sure, just like the time I was lifting weights and reflecting on the presence of Christ was spiritual.
Jim Richard
What Matters
Re “Without Love of Neighbor, No Salvation,” by Peter Schineller, S.J. (2/18): This is one of the best things I have read from a faith-based perspective; this is indeed the only thing that should matter. I would agree that in the last few decades the Catholic Church, at a theological level, has moved from “outside the church, no salvation” to “outside love of neighbor, no salvation.”
Mark Ammer
A Ministerial Offering
Re “Deliver Us” (2/13): I just finished listening to the first episode of America’s new podcast, and I want to thank you for this beautiful ministerial offering to your fellow members of the church. This first episode moved me because, spiritually, I have been yearning to connect with Catholics who have the courage of their convictions to speak in solidarity with members of our community whom our priests sexually assaulted. Thank you and your colleagues for lending your time, intellect, emotions and journalistic talents to this effort; and thank you for modeling how we can live our professed commitment to the dignity of all people.
Nora Schauble
Arlington, Va.
