Editor's Desk: You May Very Well Be Right!

(From the issue of 7/15/04)

The following guest editorial was written by Bob Zyskowski, associate publisher and general manager of The Catholic Spirit in Minneapolis.

Newspaper and magazine publishers, editors, columnists and writers at times get letters that question our brains or sanity - and oft times both.

At Catholic publications lately, more and more letters question our Catholicity as well as our intelligence and mental health - or all three. Those of us who have dedicated a career to enriching Catholic life through the written word could take offense at the more abusive feedback; you’d like to fire off a nasty reply, but that won’t do much to encourage mutual respect, and it surely won’t lead to understanding or agreement.

Some in the news business come up with a form-letter response to such letters. A long-time columnist for a Catholic magazine sent those who disagreed with his published point of view a reply that thanked them for writing and simply noted, "You may very well be right!"

It seems to be a trend in our culture to pick a side and to support that position no matter how much sense an alternative answer makes or what evidence to the contrary comes along. Worse, the trend is to attack and belittle voices with a perspective we don’t share.

One example is those folks who a while back saw abortion as the easy answer for unwanted pregnancies: After all, it’s just a lump of tissue being removed, they argued. Then along came ultrasound and the marvelous video images of the fetus growing in the womb, moving its limbs, smiling, sucking its thumb, its heart beating after just 24 days.

Still, those who support abortion won’t change. And they say we who are opposed to abortion are behind the times.

When we don’t listen, we don’t grow. Adults learn from and are most influenced by other adults. If we only talk with those who think as we do, what can we learn? How can we reach a new way to look at an issue and possibly see a better solution?

In the Church, too, hearing and reading the perspectives of others - including those with whom we disagree - makes Catholics reflect on why we believe what we believe. Considering other opinions forces us to weigh how Catholic teaching could be more persuasive so that others might be convinced about the rationale behind Church teaching.

We know that our Church is filled with people who struggle with one or more of our Catholic beliefs yet love their faith. Our task is not to reject them. In our life times we have seen too many baptized Catholics walk away from the faith of their childhood. We don’t need to wield the scythe that cuts off more people from God. Rather we must nurture models of Catholic life that allow all:

• to embrace the faith;

This isn’t going to be easy. It’d be easier to kick them out, belittle them or fire off a nasty comment. Each of us will know we are on the right path, though, when we say to someone who disagrees with us, "You may very well be right."

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