Sharing the anguish
As Sisters with long experience in teaching, we share Cathy Ransom’s anguish over young ones missing from liturgy (Missing generation, Letters CW 31/10).

However, we feel uneasy about describing the efforts of religious educators as “dressing up” the Christian message as “social justice or spirituality talk”.

That Jesus brings to one’s personal life more than the human heart can imagine is a reality which each of us has experienced, but we believe that this is as much an effect of the willingness to be involved in the mission of Jesus as the cause of becoming involved in the first place.

The Churches which preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ are those which attend to the concerns of Jesus, which he expressed particularly in the sermon on the Mount and the scene at the Last Judgment.

These and many other passages show that the heart of Jesus’ message is the service of the poor and the outcast. Merely addressing the effects of injustice is not enough, as the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church teaches. We must be willing to challenge the causes, a practice which will bring conflict with those in power, as it did for Jesus.

Cathy wonders how Church people concerned with the Iraq war and boat people “can sleep soundly knowing that each Sunday there is a whole generation missing from our faith community”.

We wonder how Catholics can attend Mass on Sunday and not anguish and act over many abuses of power, like the presence of innocent people, including children, locked up for years in our own land.

Sr Susan Connelly
and 10 other sisters
Burwood, NSW

Attack of scruples?
Following on the article by Fr John Dietzen on “scrupulosity” (Question time, CW 31/10), I would like to confirm his advice of obedience to a trusted confessor.

Modern psychological research shows that scrupulosity results from a chemical misbalance in the brain. The condition is known as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and can take different forms, such as hypochondria and scruples.

Modern drugs prescribed by general practitioners and specialists can restore the chemical balance and bring much relief to sufferers.

The best modern cure for scruples comes from a combination of medical help and the advice of a competent confessor. The medical help can give permanent relief because it attacks the problem at its root. If any sufferer wishes to contact me, I can be reached through The Catholic Weekly.

Name and address supplied

Necessary details
Fr John Dietzen responded to a question on scrupulosity (Question time, CW 31/10) but seemed to have overlooked the probability that the problem may not be inherent in the penitent but arise from priests informing of the condition because they don’t like to hear details.

Pope John Paul stated in his encyclical dealing with reconciliation that details may be necessary for two reasons: to establish if sin exists in a particular situation and to establish the seriousness of sin.

Daniel Burman
Batehaven, NSW

Extended family
Our Catholic Women’s League Metro branch would like to thank The Catholic Weekly and journalist Marilyn Rodrigues for publication of her columns – Pregnant Pause and Pitter Patter.

Marilyn’s open and candid sharing of her and husband Peter’s journey through her pregnancy and the birth and early life of daughter Naomi Therese is a gift of trust in us all. As new parents, their faith-filled response to the joys and uncertainties of this very personal time in their lives is inspiring.

Through Marilyn’s columns the family has endeared itself to so many Catholic Weekly readers. Many of us now feel like members of their extended family.

Michelle Pedersen
President
Catholic Women’s League
Metropolitan branch
Sydney, NSW

Power and beauty
The power, the beauty of the Catholic press was brought into our home when we opened our copy of the CW (November 7) and saw in big print on the front page: Moral truth the key to conscience – Cardinal with a picture of Cardinal Pell.

Turning to page 2 to continue reading this superb piece, we found another profound headline in large print We cannot agree to disagree ahead of reading very carefully Cardinal George Pell’s scholarly explanation as to why a Catholic conscience “cannot accept” a settled position against the Church on “a central” moral teaching.

Thus we “cannot” simply “agree to disagree” with the magisterium – the teaching authority of the Church – in the name of ‘loyal dissent’, albeit ‘popular’ in some quarters. There is no twin-truth in the eternal moral order and those who claim primacy of conscience rarely see the problems this raises in the ‘moral life’.

The primacy of truth as taught by the magisterium is the Way to go, and can be a new beginning for those who may have a troubled conscience ... “the beginning of an encounter with the teaching that will require patience, humility, time, self-scrutiny, conversion.” Truth cannot contradict itself.

Thomas A Watkin
Burwood, Vic

Conscience
Cardinal George Pell makes many pertinent comments about Catholic conscience.

It seems a pity, though, that in the context of that address as on other occasions he seems to manage to convey an impression that he may disagree with the authentic teaching of the Church on conscience.

As I understand it, the Church’s authentic stance on the doctrine, not only but especially since the Second Vatican Council, is that the Church at least no longer seeks to impose its doctrines on the faithful, but to propose them to believing and prayerful people.

The cardinal seems to have something of a problem with the terminology of the ‘primacy’ of conscience. Perhaps the word ‘sovereignty’ would be more palatable for him, and would, it seems to me, be perfectly coherent with the teaching of the Church.

As he indicates, it is appropriate that the Catholic conscience should honestly and humbly contend with the teachings of the Church, but surely it is of the very nature of human conscience, wherein, to quote the Council, a person “is alone with God in the depths of his or her heart” that this dialogue with God is not only sacrosanct but a kind of prayer that the Church should rejoice in encouraging above all; rather than being fearful of it. (Might I observe that the cardinal’s comments on ‘silence’ on page 6 [CW 7/11] are quite opposite to the formation of conscience).

In the context of the Church’s history, both past and in some quarters continuing, of severe moral and psychological pressure – amounting tragically in numerous lamentable instances to abuse – and of past confusions of contentious opinions with formal doctrines, it seems overdue that the Church should positively and joyfully champion the authentic doctrine of conscience.

Rev Reginald Callinan
Parish priest
St John Vianney’s
Morisset,NSW