The following letters to the editor appear in the edition of June 26, 2003. Letters appearing in this space do not necessarily reflect the views of the Arlington Catholic Herald or the Catholic Diocese of Arlington. The editor reserves the right to edit letters as necessary. There is no guarantee of publication. Send letters to: letters@catholicherald.com.

Georgetown Needs No Apology

Let’s see if I got this right about the article entitled, "Vatican Official’s Comment on Homosexuality Causes Stir" (ACH 06/19/03). Georgetown University invites Vatican official Nigerian Cardinal Frances Arinze to speak at one of its spring commencement ceremonies. The cardinal includes teachings of the Catholic Church in his address, and makes reference to homosexuality as one of the several forces in modern life that assaults the family. He urges the graduates to recognize that the Church is a "non-negotiable body of doctrine on faith and morals" and the "tenets of the Catholic Faith do not change according to the play of market forces, majority votes or opinion polls."

So why did his speech initiate the call by some in the university for a letter of apology about his remarks? Isn’t Georgetown still a Catholic university? Why is an apology needed for saying what the Church teaches? It sounds like some at Georgetown feel the cardinal needed to have his speech censored beforehand to ensure it was politically correct, and to make sure it stayed within the topic on which he was invited to speak namely Christian-Islam relations.

If one attends a Catholic university, one shouldn’t be surprised to hear what the Church teaches.

Kathleen Chau
Alexandria

Holy Land Violence

In (ACH 6/19/02), Irene Lagan complains of "Israeli checkpoints and violence." ("Christians in the Holy Land Face Threat of Extinction.")If it were not for the Mohammedan violence, neither checkpoints nor the reactive and defense military actions would be needed.

The Holy Land and all of the world have faced 1,500 years of Mohammedan aggressive war, retail and wholesale murder, theft from individuals and the theft of nations-and-cultures, sexual abuse of female captives and too many other crimes to list here. It should be specially noted that such anti-civilized behaviors are not only allowed by the Koran, but often commanded by it as a matter of faith.

The educated and thoughtful person should read the following: "Endless Jihad —The Truth About Islam And Violence," available from Catholic Answers for a small contribution; "Islam And The Church — Fourteen Centuries Of Jihad," available at www.Byzantines.net;and "The Fifteen Century War — Islam’s Violent Heritage," available from the McKenna Publishing Group, and www.mckennapubgrp.com, one of the most important historical, social and military theory books published in the last 100-years.

Name withheld upon request

University Actions Cause Concern

Thanks for your articles by James Hitchcock (ACH 6/5/03) and "Vatican Official Comment on Homosexuality Causes Stir," (ACH 6/19/03).

The Catholic Church is indeed blessed to have Cardinal Frances Arinze to teach morals.

Homosexual acts truly have their foundation embedded in pornography, adultery, fornication and abortion. What is so disturbing is that we have an abundance of professors at Georgetown teaching our young people immorality.

Georgetown teachings also help explain the degeneration of our priesthood as explained in the book "Good Bye Good Men" and the homosexual "agenda" of the immoral destruction of the Catholic Church.

Paul Rinderle
Fairfax

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