With a name like "Santa Anna," you know he got teased.

"I just received the November/December 1998 issue of Envoy and have one request. Please tell your graphics director to open a can of gummi worms next time for the cover picture; the real ones were gross!"

As an admirer of Fr. Peter Stravinskas’ writings, I was pleased to see his article "Can Outsiders Be Insiders?" in the Sept./Oct. issue of Envoy. His explanation of the development of the doctrine extra ecclesiam nulla salus ("outside the Church, no salvation") was clear, logical and informative.

I must take exception, however, to Fr. Stravinskas’ characterization of "Remember the Alamo!" as a vindictive slogan. These words were on the lips of Texan soldiers fighting against the corrupt and despotic Santa Anna. In fact, Texas was not alone in its reaction to Santa Anna’s contempt for the Mexican Constitution of 1824. His lust for power precipitated revolutionary activity in other parts of Mexico, as well.

Far from being a vindictive slogan, "Remember the Alamo!" was a cry for freedom that stirred the Texans (both Anglo and Hispanic) to heroic feats of bravery in defense of their rights as Mexican citizens.

Steve McCown, Austin TX

The numbers don’t add up

Envoy deserves all the readership possible. I enjoy its many fine qualities, like diversity, orthodoxy (fidelity to Magisterium), quality contributors and what I call the "rebuttal to the rebuttal" department, aka As Received, which is an improvement over Letters to the Editor.

You will welcome a tip, given in charity, costing you nothing, guaranteed to improve the magazine. As one proactive in derailing error, I note in the Jan./Feb. issue the following page numbers are missing: 12, 13, 20, 21, 32, 33, 42, 43, 47, 48, 49, 59. I won’t read AARP because they omit too many page numbers. By contrast, Lay Witness omitted only one page (7).

People buy magazines to place on an office table, to shelf the community library, to show how literate they are or to drain the school budget. I scrutinize magazines cover to cover. Then I recommend to the Church community (and you have been plugged here) magazines we support with Church funds. Everything matters, including page numbers. My responsibility is met.

Bert Trudeau, via e-mail

Worming our way into the hearts of our readers

I really enjoy your magazine and compete with my dad over who gets to read it first on a regular basis. I’m fifteen years old and enjoy reading anything on my Catholic Faith.

However, I just received the November/ December 1998 issue and have one request. Please tell your graphics director to open a can of gummi worms next time for the cover picture; the real ones were gross.

Sarah Reischl, Onalaska WI

Surprised by the Truth

As an independent, fundamental Baptist, I was thoroughly surprised to see Bible doctrines found within the pages of your magazine. This discovery prompted me to search harder to see if I could crack the juggernaut of the Catholic faith. My hopes were shattered when after further research, I found that my beliefs of what Catholics taught were misconceptions. Catholic teaching and Bible teaching actually agreed with each other!

This research placed me at a crossroads in my spiritual life; should I continue in my Baptist upbringings and wish all that I studied to be a dream, or should I turn my heart to Christ through the ministry of his Catholic Church and risk rejection from both friends and family? Through the use of Catholic apologetics magazines, books, and tapes, the Holy Spirit has shown me the correct path to choose — the path of the Holy Catholic Church. Like Paul, I was forced into the light of the truth, and in the end I could only echo his words, "What will you have me to do, Lord?" I decided that I needed to share this with you all so that you can have more evidence that this magazine is fulfilling its purpose.

One quick question though. I’m still struggling with the doctrine of salv-ation/eternal life, as far as how grace, faith, works and baptism all factor into ones hopes of attaining heaven. Any Scripture references, Patristic teachings, modern books, or official Church documents that you could suggest would be very helpful to me (and others who might have the same question). I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being faithful to teaching the truth with no fear of reproach. May God bless this ministry and every one of you.

John Davis, via e-mail

Holier than thou

The apologetics discussions are too good to justify throwing the whole magazine away when you’re doing a spring cleaning or an end of a semester purge. How easy would it be to publish the magazine with three holes punched so that one could file some articles?

Pat Sullivan, via e-mail

Mail the Queen a copy

Well, they gave us the Beatles. It's the least we can do.

Last week I received the back copy of Envoy magazine you kindly sent. Wow! It is great. For a long time I have been lamenting the lack of good, relevant, well-presented orthodox Catholic material. Here in England, too often materials which are orthodox are badly produced. If they have good production standards then they are stuffy, old-fashioned looking and have a reactionary tone with too much suspicion of the modern world and Vatican II.

I’ve also been feeling a real burden about the future of the Church and the need for a reconciliation of the strengths of Evangelicalism and Catholicism. Envoy looks like it helps to meet that need. I really believe the "second Springtime" of the Church is right around the corner. This new Church will not look like the pre-Vatican II Church, nor will it look like the tired 60s "relevant" Church. I think it’s going to look and feel more like Envoy: orthodox, but fresh, up to date, relevant and challenging. If my vision is correct, then more and more Evangelicals will realize that the Catholic Church is their true home and more and more Catholics will come to a more personal understanding of their historical Faith. This new Church will appeal across the old ethnic, national and denominational divides and be truly ecumenical, united and universal. This my fervent hope and prayer.

Dwight Longenecker, Chippenham, England

Giving Palm a hand

Do you have any plans to put David Palm’s Y2K article on the Web? I myself am a writer on Y2K topics (http://www. y2ktimebomb.com/Special/Opinion/columndex.htm#elc), and I think there is no finer, more readable, more comprehensive introduction to Y2K than Dave’s article.

I hope you plan to put it on the Web soon. If you do not, I would be happy to "host" it (with appropriate credit and links, of course) at my own Y2KPage (http:// users.sgi.net/~elcore/elc_y2k.htm), a sister to my CatholicPage (http://users. sgi.net/~elcore/catholic.htm).

Lane Core Jr., via e-mail

Yes, you can download the article from our site today. Visit us at either envoymagazine.com or evangelization.com. Do it before something goes haywire with your computer!

— Editor

Isn’t "Buddhist dabbling" a felony in Oregon?

I’m a former SDA turned Buddhist-dabbler turned Catholic, and my wife (a cradle Catholic) and I love your magazine. I especially enjoyed your exchange with the Adventists in the Sept./Oct. issue.

I just received my Nov./Dec. issue in the mail. After reading the computer haiku you received through e-mail on page 13, though, I got a strange feeling. . . as if I had seen something about how those poems weren’t anonymous. It turns out that the poems were submitted to a contest held by Salon magazine. Check out the following URL for the full story: http://www.salonmagazine.com/21st/rose/1998/02/24straight.html.

Anyway, keep up the wonderful work.

Jim Cork, Kake, Japan

We’d like his job

This afternoon, I wondered why the phone was silent and all my work was caught up. I looked around my office for something to do. I remembered throwing a new magazine my father had just ordered into my briefcase yesterday: Envoy. I’d been very interested in it since I’d seen Patrick Madrid on EWTN, but also since I’d heard him on a tape with one of my heroes, Bud MacFarlane, Jr. When I learned of the magazine, I was anxious to look at it. Needless to say, until today, I didn’t have the chance.

Now that I’ve looked at it cover to cover, all I can say is "wow!" This is something completely new and heretofore unavailable. The Holy Father’s call to a New Evangelization and a "Springtime in the Church" places the talented Envoy staff on the front line of the Faith. I’ve wanted somewhere to go for several years to improve my apologetics and there really hasn’t been anyone thinking along those lines — until Envoy. So many opportunities, so little ability and knowledge! That’s been my lament for months and months. All I’ve been able to do until now is make things worse by jumping in blindly or silently wishing I had some help in my corner. Envoy and its staff can be that help.

Thank you for your hard work. I for one welcome what you’re doing and look forward to the next issue with great anticipation. Congratulations on your great work.

Frank Bussmann, Clayton MO

"Bowdlerization"?
That’s gotta hurt.

Some of your readers may wonder why, if the members of Call to Action believe in openness, diversity and democracy in the Church, "a good number of its adherents work for change from their seats of power in the Church’s middle management" ("Call to Faction," Nov./Dec. 1998).

Consider the issue of "inclusive language." The Vatican has made clear, in its rejection of the use of the New Revised Standard Version and the revised Psalms of the New American Bible in the liturgy and in catechism classes, that it regards the feminist bowdlerization of the Bible in these translations to be too extreme. And a Roper poll that was published in the March 1997 Catholic World Report revealed that 69 percent of American Catholics oppose "inclusive" language (47 percent "strongly") while only 21 percent support it (9 percent "strongly").

If the members of Call to Action really believed in democracy in the Church, they would support standard English. Instead, they’re its shrillest enemies. The most charitable thing that I could think of regarding Call to Action is that they’ve lost their faith, yet are afraid of trying to find work outside the Church (you may notice they tend to be up in years). As a result, they turn to a belief in the need to liberalize the Church to justify their continued employment.

Don Schenk, Allentown PA

We’re Envoy and we’ve come to affirm you

I really appreciated Envoy again today. I haven’t had a chance to read it thoroughly, but as usual, what articles I’ve read, I’ve enjoyed. I like the At Ease section, too. Great stuff.

By the way, "Dancing in the Moonlight" is one of my favorite songs. And I think King Harvest has great evangelistic implications! (Naming the group that sings the song is a great trivia question. A lot of people don’t know it’s King Harvest.) I always feel culturally affirmed when I read Envoy.

I also enjoyed Tim Staples’ column, as usual. One very minor point: Mark McGwire’s name was spelled "McGuire." Interestingly, the grad admissions guy at Steubenville is Mark McGuire, but I guess I didn’t think about the association until after the record was broken, because of the difference in spelling.

Keep up all the good work and God bless you in everything!

Tom Nash, Steubenville OH

Finding freedom behind bars

My name is Marcos Beltran and I’m a 21 year old Catholic from Santa Ana, Orange County. This is my first time in prison. I’ve been here since August 2, 1996. I was sentenced to 5 years for robbery with a gun.

Since I’ve been down here, I started reading the Bible and going to Protestant services. I knew nothing about the Catholic Faith, just the sign of the cross. So, after a while, I started to believe Catholicism was idolatry, because Catholics worship Mary. Many bad things were told to me about the Catholic Church, like how the practice of calling priests "Father" is contrary to the Bible. I believed what was told me, because at that time, no Catholic was here to show me the Catholic position.

Then one day, a Catholic moved into this dorm of 90 inmates. He used to attend seminars on the outside, and knew a lot about the Bible. He showed me in the Bible where the angels are offering up the prayers of the saints, and many other things. Ever since then (about a year and a half), he’s proven to me that the Catholic Church was established by Christ.

I’ve been studying the Catholic Faith for some time now, and I go to Mass every Sunday. I also enjoy reading Catholic apologetics.

I’ve had many debates with Jehovah’s Witnesses and Protestants. I read Pat Madrid’s debate with Robert Starling, of the Mormon Church, and really enjoyed it. I’d be very grateful if you would help me out with any kinds of books or tracts that can aid me in defending the Faith against Mormons, Protestants and Jehovah’s Witnesses. I promise to put them to the best use by sharing them with my (very few) Catholic brothers who are willing to contend for the Faith that was once for all handed down to the saints.

Marcos Beltran, San Luis Obispo CA

The materials are in the mail. We hope they help. Attention subscribers! Can you assist in our outreach to those in prison by helping us send materials? We are offering free one-year bulk subscriptions to prisons (See our ad, page 59). While they are offered free to the prisons, we could use your help in covering costs. You can help us by sponsoring a subscription for just $61.20. The magazines go a long way in prison. They get passed around to dozens of inmates. Your gift may be the difference between despair and the hope and salvation found in Jesus Christ. — Editor

Even mothers-in-law need the Truth

Yesterday, I asked my mother-in-law if she would baby-sit her four grandchildren this Sunday night, so my husband and I could attend a "meeting." If I had told her the truth — that the meeting was, in fact, a Natural Family Planning class — I would have been subject to a lecture on the following points: 1. We couldn’t possibly want more than four children, 2. Being Catholic is about choosing the teachings you agree with (because they fit your lifestyle) and ignoring the ones you don’t, 3. With all the family planning methods available today, it’s unnecessary (and unwise) to choose one that involves self-denial (and "doesn’t work").

So, the class became a "meeting" and I successfully avoided the above diatribe.

Today, I read your article on Dolores Bernadette Grier (Diplomatic Corps, Nov./Dec. 1998) and saw that, in avoiding a confrontation, I squandered an opportunity to defend the Faith I love. Painful as it was, I saw myself in Ms. Grier’s description of Catholics who are too concerned about what the world says. Ms. Grier says it’s not enough to love and live the Faith. We have to defend it, too. Meat Loaf might sing that "two out of three ain’t bad," but Ms. Grier wouldn’t be singing along.

Romans 12:2 says, "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Truly, all that matters in this life is doing "what is good and acceptable" to God. Pleasing friends and family isn’t mentioned at all. When we remember that the Truths of the Catholic Faith are answers for living happily now and for eternity, then it follows that by failing to defend those truths or watering them down in an effort not to offend the world, we are withholding those answers from those who really need to hear them and, ultimately, offending the Lord Himself. Psalm 27 says, "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?" We would do well to live by this always.

To be sure, I have a long way to go as an apologist. But by continuing to read Envoy and by following Dolores Bernadette Grier’s example in speaking the truth regardless of the consequences, I hope to find that backbone I misplaced somewhere along the way.

Cecelia Smith, Iron Mountain MI

Express yourself. Send your comments to: Editor, Envoy Magazine, P.O. Box 640, Granville, OH 43023, e-mail: editor@envoymagazine.com.

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