The following letters to the editor appear in the edition of Dec. 11, 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.

Why Quote the ACLU?

How about citing ("Broken Justice," ACH 11/20/03) a counter-factoid to the blatantly liberal ACLU study on the death penalty in Virginia? Here's some information your readers might be interested in.

"Do innocent people ever get caught in the crosshairs of justice? Not as often as death-penalty opponents would have us believe. According to Dudley Sharp, from Justice For All, a nonprofit organization that works on criminal justice reform, ‘somewhere between 15 and 30 death row inmates have been released from death row with credible evidence of actual innocence. That represents about a 0.3-percent error rate of the 7,300 sentenced to death since 1973.’ None of these people were executed before their names were cleared. Those who say otherwise — who think that the error rate is higher — often confuse two types of error. Some cases are reversed because of a legal error about, for example the admissibility of certain evidence. But reversals of this sort are not indicative of the execution of innocents. With respect to that issue — factual errors resulting in the execution of an actually innocent defendant — no case has been identified since the U.S. re-instituted the death penalty in 1973." — Paul Rosenzwieg, writing for the Heritage Foundation online.

Gene Arbogast
Springfield

Positive Side of Wal-Mart

Father John Rausch’s rant against retail giant Wal-Mart (ACH 11/20/03) demonstrates that he ought to stick to faith and morals stay away from topics of which he is woefully ignorant. I’ll tackle his points in turn.

Wal-Mart does not coerce people to work for them. They offer jobs to people who lack the education or skills to get higher paying jobs. Moreover, the 28-hour definition of a full-time employee allows many more people to qualify for health benefits — the reason why 60% of Wal-Mart employees take those jobs. Health benefits, as we who live in the real world know, is a valuable part of the pay package. The 28-hour week also is attractive to women who want to spend less time at work and more time at home.

Father Rausch berates Wal-Mart for being efficient and keeping overhead down — Heavens! He decries the fact that Wal-Mart attracts so many consumers. I suppose he prefers inefficient businesses that fail to attract customers.

Wal-Mart doesn’t use union labor. So what? I’ll bet most union members in this country shop at Wal-Mart and appreciate the low prices and good service.

Wal-Mart buys cheap foreign goods. If we don’t buy their goods, poor countries won’t have the hard currency they need to grow their economies. The Japanese started with trinkets and now they sell cars. Is Father Rausch suggesting we boycott Chinese goods and set off a round of economic distress for a billion people? Father Rausch would stifle the progress of the overseas poor just to protect his cottage industries in Appalachia. He needs to take a broader look at the world instead of hiding behind platitudes about sweatshops.

If Father Rausch ran corporate America, we’d all be living in poverty. We’d be working in sweatshops making trinkets for export.

Daniel Graham
Fairfax

Thanks for Supporting the Church

With sincere gratitude I wish to acknowledge receipt of the check in the amount of $238,254, representing the Peter’s Pence Contribution from the Church in Arlington for 2003, which you had forwarded this past week to the Apostolic Nunciature.

As I assure you that this sum will be duly transmitted to the Secretariat of State on your behalf, permit me to offer an initial word of appreciation in the name of the Holy Father for this valuable assistance. In addition to sharing in the material responsibilities facing Pope John Paul II, this expression of generosity by your people reveals their deep awareness of the bonds of faith, worship and love which they share with the universal Church and God’s people, especially the poor, throughout the world.

May God, who is infinitely generous, reward your diocese and continue to bless its faithful.

Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo
Apostolic Nuncio
Washington, D.C.

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