Choices More WorthyI want to thank America for the attention you have brought to the pledge Renewing the Mind of the Media (11/11) and for John McCarthy’s excellent explication of the mind of the U.S. bishops in asking that this pledge be taken on Dec. 17 this year and on World Communications

Chalices and ChairsLet me see if I have this right: According to the lead item in Signs of the Times (11/4), someone in the Vatican, honoring the ancient tradition of not allowing the laity to get too persnickety, decided that extraordinary ministers, after 20 years of doing so, may no longer purify

Hard ChoicesIt is times like this that I most regret allowing myself to fall behind in my reading of America. On the eve of the elections, I am about one and a half months behind, and have just read The Faces Behind Us by Robert Heaney (9/30). The call to respond is strong within me.Dr. Heaney&rsquo

Contraceptive MentalityI am writing to offer a criticism of your editorial on RU-486 (10/14). I find one of the suggestions in your last paragraph most curiousnamely, your claim that there are people who accept the church’s teaching on contraception but reject her teaching on abortion. Aside f

Maine ModestyI read with interest Of Many Things (10/21), which mentions my native city and tells the story of a golden boy by the name of Ian Crocker. I recently heard another amazing story about this ordinary Olympian. It seems he was working before he left for Australia this summer and mentioned

Offended by DrawingI sincerely hope that I am not the only one offended by the cartoon of the ugly prelate accompanying the commentary on the liturgical readings for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (The Word, 10/14). It is not worthy of the commentary, to which it gives a distasteful flavor, nor su

Predecessors in Faith My sincere and heartfelt congratulations on the article about Mother Katharine Drexel by Dennis M. Linehan, S.J., in your religious education issue (9/16). I appreciated your evident pleasure with the material we furnished.Our prayerful best wishes to each of you in your d

Rethink AgainI was deeply saddened and disappointed to see the editorial The Elections and Abortion (9/16), in which you practically anoint and endorse Al Gore, even though he is blatantly anti-life. By that I mean that he is passionately pro-abortion.I was very sorry to see you use the expression p

Quality of TranscendenceThe article by John W. O’Malley, S.J., (8/26) exploring the beatification of Pius IX was informative and, to be sure, helped to provide me with contextual information that I did not get elsewhere. In his article, Father O’Malley reflects on the notion of holiness

Word and ImageIt’s laudable thatwith everything else the Rev. Andrew M. Greeley is able to accomplishhe keeps up with the times and what is going on in the world around him (9/16). Father Greeley has such vital enthusiasm. Would that all of us noticed as well the beautiful skies in the photos