Recently, Archbishop Daniel Buechlein of Indianapolis, head of the bishops’ catechism committee, told a gathering of religious educators that our catechisms have deficiencies because the publishers didn’t want to offend anyone. We are reminded that Christ often offended the Pharisees, sinners and those who spoke against the truth. In our selfish age, adults are so self-centered, they ignore this. Our youth aren’t being taught the faith but a watered-down version in many places, and as a result, are unable to cope with life. We’re cheating them and few adults seem interested. The first thing many teens do when they leave home is to drop this half-baked religion. Where are the adults to speak out against this crime against our youth?

Fr. Rawley Myers, Colorado Springs, CO

Exploding magazines
and other hazards

I was delighted to read Mark Lowery’s “Read This” op-ed article. This was what I’ve been seeking for some time now. With the explosion of good Catholic magazines, the decision on what to read is tough, especially when you have limited time and money. I hope Mr. Lowery will continue this theme, with a list of newspapers and journals. Keep up the great work!

Marty Browne, via e-mail

One baaaaaaad joke

My wife and I have been avid readers of Envoy Magazine since publication number one. Your educational articles have really deepened our love for the Church and our knowledge of the Faith. Your outlandish sense of humor has been a real joy for us. At times, we’ve been amused at some of the readers who have complained about your cover designs, articles on evolution, your wacky sense of humor, etc.

Unfortunately, your Sept./Oct. 1998 issue crossed the line, even for us. Your “At Ease” page (lesser-known Catholic magazines) was quite humorous until you poked fun at the Paschal Lamb in Gnu Covenant. I know the staff of this outstanding publication has a deep love for the Lord, but honestly, this is where being funny can get out of hand. I am sure our Jewish brothers and sisters would have a tough time with this comment. As a Catholic, I have real difficulty with this statement, because our ultimate Paschal Lamb is Jesus Christ. The next time any of you are attending adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and see Jesus in His glory on that altar contained within the crown of the monstrance, then you can tell me how funny this is.

Bill Cook, via e-mail

What a Deal?

He dared us

I greatly enjoyed your good-natured spoof of Catholic magazines in the last issue of Envoy. It’s nice to see some humor creep into the back pages of our grave deliberations. But while we’re at it, I have another one for you: Imagine, if you will, a magazine entitled Convoy, in the font of your Envoy. This particular issue has a picture of Jeff Cavins tearing in half a copy of Campus Crusade’s “Four Spiritual Laws,” with the headline, “Converts Who Take No Prisoners and Look Good Doing It.” Below that is the announcement of a new Convoy monthly feature, “Pinto Beans for the Soul.” I dare you!

Deal Hudson, Editor & Publisher, Crisis
Washington, D.C.

Mostly excellent

We subscribe to several orthodox Catholic magazines, and none tops yours. We eagerly await each issue of Envoy. Congratulations on your top writers, useful topics and good spirit. I must admit, though, that I thought Patrick Madrid could have been a bit more charitable in “More Vicarius Thrills.” You will have a hard time topping “Lesser-Known Catholic Magazines,” (Sept./Oct. 1998) but we hope you try.

John Charlesworth, Napa, CA

Excellent but excessive

I’ve read a few issues of Envoy and I’ve found your magazine very useful for defending my conversion to the Faith. Consequently, I was disappointed when Patrick Madrid concluded his excellent rebuttal of Scheifler and Drisko’s claims (“More Vicarious Thrills”) with uncharitable ridicule. In his prior article, he’d already illustrated the fallacy of trying to translate someone’s name or title into 666. The space used to mock the two may have been better used for other arguments to defend the Faith.

Benjamin Kong,, Arcadia, CA

Right on target

I just had to write and compliment you on your article on Seventh-Day Adventists and 666 (“More Vicarius Thrills,” Sept./Oct. 1998); it was right on. I was raised SDA, attended an SDA college and did a year of graduate study in church history at Loma Linda University. My church history professor, the late Paul Landa, debunked the traditional SDA 666 interpretation in class. He noted that as a boy, he had gone to the Vatican Museum, and his father, an evangelist, looked at every papal tiara to see for himself if the traditional SDA claim was true. Obviously, it wasn’t, and he never preached about 666 the same way again.

SDA scholars have known for a long time that the Vicarius Filii Dei thing is false. They say so in the SDA encyclopedia. But that doesn’t stop evangelists from continuing their National Enquirer style presentations, plagiarized right out of good ol’ Uriah Smith. I suspected as much regarding the 1915 Our Sunday Visitor article, but it’s nice to have it spelled out. Could you send me a copy of the letter from Our Sunday Visitor? I hope you will post this article on your website, because I would like to be able to have lots of my friends see it.

William J. Cork, D.Min., Director of Young Adult and Campus Ministry, Diocese of Galveston-Houston

His baptismal name
was “Zsa Zsa”

At the risk of sounding like so many others, I love your magazine! I especially appreciate your humor and your charity toward our separated brothers and sisters in Christ! I just finished reading the rebuttal Patrick Madrid (what a cool name; is it made up?) wrote for the Seventh-Day Adventists regarding the accusation that the Holy Father is the beast in Revelation.

Diana Kendrick, via e-mail

Just call him Xena

Okay - I admit it! Patrick Madrid is climbing the ladder on my list of favorite warriors. The battle recently raged with the Adventist writers is definitely in the top ten of apologetic battles I’ve read. Since I live in an area with an Adventist college, his article in the Sept./Oct. 1998 issue had me at the edge of my seat. Like a true warrior, he didn’t hide the position of his foes. He quoted them ad nauseum. And, it seemed that maybe, our hero was on the ropes. Ah, but it was the rope-a-dope technique. He wasn’t down. He wasn’t hurt. He was armed with the truth! As he gave them the floor and every opportunity to give their best shot, he reacted like a true warrior: with quiet reserve. Waiting. . . waiting for his opportunity to strike. And with what thoroughness and devastation did he finally respond! I can’t help but be saddened for those who sway in the winds of semi-truth. We must all pray that their passion will someday be used to spread the fullness of the truth! What an awesome God it is that we serve, and how devastatingly powerful is His Faith! Keep up the great work Envoy! I relish every issue!

Greg Fazzari, Walla Walla, WA

Bad news for Bonacci

As a reader of Envoy I sincerely appreciate the variety in the articles regarding our rich Catholic Faith. However, conscience compels me to voice my disappointment at Mary Beth Bonacci’s (May/June 1998) article, “Everyone’s Entitled to an Opinion: Mine.” I’ve addressed hundreds of Catholic teens regarding morality and abortion. Usually, I have no more than an hour with these kids, and I know my presentation may be their only opportunity to hear the truth. For this reason, I waste no time trying to win their affection, make them comfortable and find areas where we may already agree. When I address them point blank about right and wrong, they don’t “look at me as if I were some kind of a freak from a galaxy far, far away.” Our teens are intelligent; they appreciate a straight forward approach coupled with the facts. My job, as an envoy for Jesus, is to give my listeners the truth (whether it’s cool or not) and to pray the Holy Spirit will empower them to act upon it.

Mary Beth continues that she gives teens information and then “let[s] them make up their own minds.” The modern teaching method that provides information and then leaves youth to “make up their own minds” is called values clarification and has been officially condemned by the Church (see The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, section 140). Any presentation about morality that encourages listeners to make their own decisions ultimately strips authority from God (and from parents). God didn’t send His Son and then ask us to make up our own minds. He commanded us to obey. Our teens deserve to be told up front that they must obey God. Anything else is confusing and destructive.

Thirdly, and perhaps most dangerously, Mary Beth tells teens that “sexual activity forms an incredibly strong bond.” If sex really forms a bond, how does Mary Beth explain our outrageous divorce rate or the number of sexually active teen couples that don’t marry? There are thousands of lonely teens who thirst desperately for love. Telling them that sex forms a strong bond may be just the thing to lead them into sexual sin. In addition, her statement may be the piece of information to throw some of them teens into doomed marriages. Sex does not form a bond.

Love, commitment, friendship, loyalty and the sacramental grace of marriage form a bond. Mary Beth’s theory isn’t consistent with Church teaching nor with the thousands of marriages that have thrived, even when use of the marriage bed was unavailable because of illness, injury or temporary separation (such as military assignments). Mary and Joseph enjoyed a virginal marriage. To what does Mary Beth attribute their bond?

Lisa Contini, via e-mail

Finding your center

I was reading the article about the theories of evolution in your March/April 1997 issue, and found something you may want to consider. I understand in advance that you, as fellow Catholics, disagree with Darwin, but the following is an example of how easily our modern atheistic generation can breed doubt. George Sim Johnston wrote: “If the universe were roughly 6,000 years old, as a literal reading of Genesis would suggest, then we would not be able to see the Milky Way. The light would not have reached the earth yet.”

But it is possible the universe is only 6,000 years old - even when factoring in the Milky Way. How? Easy. God could have created the light already existing between the Milky Way and the earth from the beginning! As we know, with God all things are possible.

Food for thought: The earth may be the exact center of the universe. People don’t consider this since we don’t even believe our planet to be the center of our own solar system. However, the center of something is generally determined by it’s “edges.” No, we may not be the gravitational center of our solar system, but the earth may actually be it’s center (since we don’t know the boundaries). If that were true, the center of our solar system seems less important.

Mark Greenle, via e-mail

At least miraculous medals
won’t give you cavities

I found the article “Smashing Pumpkins” (Sept./Oct. 1998) to be a well balanced and intelligently written piece. There are a lot of Catholics and other Christians who think their children shouldn’t participate in Halloween. That’s too bad because it’s an excellent opportunity to evangelize trick-or-treaters and their parents. Let me tell you what I did this past Halloween. In my front window, I placed a huge classical poster of St. Michael the Archangel sticking it to the devil, and illuminated it with holy candles. I then played trick and treat. I gave the little tikes their treats, along with miraculous medals. We gotta stop moaning about the evil side of Halloween, and simply annex it for Christ - just like the early Christians did.

John Pacheco, Ottawa, Canada

We should be getting
a commission

I read with great interest your op-ed piece on page 28 of the July/August 1998 issue, written by Mark Lowery. We already subscribe to several excellent publications (including yours) and decided, on the strength of that article, to subscribe to a few more. The only one on the list which we were already getting was the New Oxford Review, so we’ve chosen to add Sursum Corda, This Rock, The Catholic Faith and Crisis.

Don Blaquiere, via e-mail

Give us Moore!

I enjoyed Jim Moore’s recent article in Envoy (“Rocking the Cradle Catholic,” Sept./Oct. 1998). I, too, am a cradle Catholic in my mid-30s. I agree 100% with the article. I wish more Catholics our age could get into the official teachings of the Church. Our laity needs to get more involved with apologetics and teaching the faith as it’s meant to be taught. I work at a Catholic high school in Wisconsin and know the challenges our religion teachers face in educating the kids in the truths of the Faith. Still, we must teach the doctrine. We can’t allow any more watering down of the faith just to make it more “acceptable” to a wider audience. It’s a challenge, but one we need to accept. Thanks for the inspiration.

Mark Miller, via e-mail

Put on the riot gear

I enjoy your magazine and it’s often very clever. The humor in Envoy is usually a riot. Something in the Nov./Dec. 1998 issue, however, wasn’t so funny, and I bring it to your attention not to be a party pooper, but to call you to be consistent with your mission statement (which stresses charity in apologetics). The back cover of this particular issue had a cartoon of three people on the beach. Around the outskirts of the cartoon are questions like “Jeered at by Jehovah’s Witnesses? Picked on by Pentecostals? Subscribe Now!” If beating the Protestants who pick on us (as the cartoon implies) is what being Catholic is really all about, then I think we need to question how seriously we’ve taken the Holy Father’s call to Christian unity - one which he confirmed yet again in his recent visit to St. Louis. Notice, he’s never taken this “I’m gonna beat you” approach with Christians of other denominations. He simply lives his faith heroically, and that in itself has called countless souls to the Catholic church (my 87 and 85-year-old grandparents being the latest converts this March).

We don’t draw people to our faith with cheap shots and cutting humor, both of which are ultimately fueled by arrogance. I know this isn’t the kind of magazine you aim to be, and I encourage you to exercise caution in the future if indeed you hope to stay true to your mission statement and to draw many souls to Christ.

Margaret Burleigh, Burlington, KY

Editor responds: Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. I must say, though, we were astonished by your strong reaction to the ad (a spoof of a well-known “Mr. Universe” ad that was popular in the 1950s and 60s). You are, to my knowledge, the only one to complain about the border text of the illustration. While a couple of readers complained about the characters wearing bathing suits, which they felt was immodest (see the next letter), your characterization of the ad as a “cheap shot,” “cutting,” and “fueled by arrogance” is unique and, I must say, inaccurate. We at Envoy take the Holy Father’s call to unity seriously, and we take our commitment to charity seriously, but we also take seriously the fact that many Catholics in many places are jeered at, mocked, and hassled for their religious beliefs by members of other religions. It was just our way way to encourage Catholics, in a humorous way, to prepare themselves to respond intelligently (and, yes, charitably) to those situations.

She’s not gonna like our
swimsuit issue. . .

I’m a young Catholic adult who enjoys reading your magazine. I have two comments I’d like to make on the last issue.

First of all, I can’t express enough how grateful I am to have come across Fr. Stravinskas’ article about “No Salvation Outside the Church.” Fr. Feeney’s supporters are still alive and well, and they had me confused and unhappy. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to have had things cleared up in a logical, rational way. This is something I’ve actually prayed for, and I’d wondered if I’d ever find the answers. Thank you!

I was, however, appalled at the cartoon on the back of the magazine. We young Catholics need all the encouragement we can get to heed Our Lady’s words at Fatima about immodest fashions. Seeing these fashions on the back of a good Catholic magazine makes me wonder if I’m crazy (as the world says) to dress modestly. I wouldn’t have left that cartoon around for my brothers to find. I could have understood the article on page 34 just fine, too, without the photo of the woman in the strapless gown. I’m sure you were using it to make a point, but I thought it wasn’t necessary in a Catholic magazine.

I’m not trying to be critical of you; you’re doing wonderful work. I just wanted to share my thoughts on these matters. And I do enjoy the magazine very much.

Ann Brown, Bardstown, KY