Premature call

The Spirit wrote about the pope calling Joe Biden on Nov. 12 to congratulate him on “winning the presidential election” (“Papal call,” Nov. 19). Not only was the call premature, but I find it somewhat insulting to my Catholic faith. Biden is pro-abortion, totally divisive and dishonest. The Church recommends ex-communication for advocates and supporters of abortion. The pope does not speak for me, or millions of other Catholics in the U.S.

Jim Fregeau
St. Bridget of Sweden, Lindstrom

Preeminent issue

I was shocked and dismayed to see, in response to the article “Pro-lifers fear ‘hard-core, pro-abortion forces’ in Biden administration” (Nov. 19), not one but two letters to the editor which seemed to say, implicitly and explicitly, that Biden is more pro-life than Trump (Dec. 3). It is true that being pro-life encompasses concerns other than abortion, but abortion nevertheless remains the preeminent issue for the pro-life movement. In 2017, there were 862,000 abortions in the United States. That is significantly more deaths than capital punishment! Furthermore, although in developed countries like the U.S. there really isn’t much need for capital punishment anymore, capital punishment is not intrinsically immoral. Abortion is. When one candidate supports abortion and the other does not, there can be no question regarding who is the more pro-life candidate.

Serena Hedman
St. Raphael, Crystal

Masking the truth

In a previous letter “Church sadly silent” (Dec. 3), the writer in his well-written letter mentioned that “there was no hard stand on abortion.” Why is that? Have we become complacent about abortion — seeing it as just an everyday thing? Or are we lying to ourselves? As we wear masks to protect us from a virus, are we also wearing “masks” of words to protect us from the truth? We use vague smoke-screen words like “reproductive health, “women’s health,” “reproductive rights.” Even the word “abortion” doesn’t tell the whole story. We cringe at the word that does. We need to name it for what it really is. The real word for what we’re doing and that we’re hiding from is “butchering.” It’s what we do to animals, and it’s also what we’re doing to living, pre-born, human beings. But we’re afraid to bring this out in the open. The word is too harsh — even though true — so we put on our masking words: “reproductive health.” Words to help us forget — or not care — that a baby has died. Words can obscure meaning — words like decency that our new president claims and often uses, while he is a strongly pro-choice Catholic. We hesitate to use the word butchering — but it’s true. It’s true as we watch the movie “Unplanned,” and we see on the ultrasound the baby trying to get away from its attacker/abortionist. The baby’s struggle is in vain. It’s killed. Is pulling off our masks and seeing and naming the truth too much for us? But if we see what’s true, we must wonder, can a species that is killing off its own survive? The worst would be if we know what we’re doing, but we do it anyway because we’re too selfish to care. If so, God help us.

Catherine Carlson
St. Peter, Forest Lake

Clarity needed

There seems to be some confusion about abortion vs. racism vs. immigration policies, etc. among your readers. Let’s be very clear. All Christians hold that all humans are created by God, and that Jesus Christ the only Son of God came in the flesh taking on a human body to die for our sins. If God made you, he also made everyone else. If Jesus died for you, he also died for everyone else. No one has the right to destroy another person created by God that Christ died for. If you do not believe this you are not Christian. It is impossible for a person to be a follower of Jesus Christ and support abortion-promoting politicians. You cannot love and serve Jesus, and love and serve abortion-promoting politicians. This is an indisputable fact. I suggest that the supporters of abortion-promoting politicians that want to become followers of Jesus repent as soon as possible.

Liz Kirkeide
St. Paul, Ham Lake

Wait and see?

In response to Lee McGee’s comments about President Trump and Joe Biden (“Concern misdirected,” Letters, Dec. 17), I’m not aware of any President Trump lies and am aware of plenty of Joe Biden lies. Joe Biden and his son Hunter could possibly go to prison for what they have been involved in financially. But the biggest reason for him not to be president is his involvement with China. The COVID-19 mess started in China, and what a mess it has been. And Joe Biden is involved with China. President Trump’s handling of this crisis has saved many lives. Prior to this crisis President Trump has done a fantastic job getting our economy to work much better than any other president. The Dow is over 30,000. It was 19,732 when he took office. And with all the negative media he received in the years since he took office. My brother has suggested that now that Joe Biden is becoming president, those that voted for him will find out why they shouldn’t have voted for him when they see how he handles the job.

Ray Brandt
St. John the Baptist, Savage

Consult Catechism

I’m writing in response to Joan Homstad’s letter on “Pro-life policies” (Dec. 3). I wish she and all Catholics would get their facts and opinions from the true teaching of the Catholic Church rather than from the Star Tribune. It is a false statement to compare abortion to closing the door to those seeking asylum, separating parents from children and making a false statement about President Trump putting to death more people than during the past half-century. People should, instead of reading the Star Tribune, read the Catholic Catechism on abortion (paragraphs 2270 through 2275): Anyone that performs an abortion commits an intrinsic evil, a mortal sin and incurs excommunication. That includes a person who assists in an abortion and a person who promotes an abortion. Has Biden condemned abortion? He said he would support funding Planned Parenthood, which promotes abortion and funds abortion. Is his platform abolishing abortion or promoting it? Over one million babies are aborted each year, or putting it more bluntly: killing unborn babies. Anyone that votes for a person or party that promotes abortion is committing a serious sin because they are supporting legislation to kill more babies. This is why I’ve voted pro-life for over 50 years, no matter if they are Democrat or Republican.

Donald Dolan
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Hastings

Vaccine questions

Let’s see if I’ve got this right. It’s okay to be immunized against COVID with vaccines that were produced using fetal cell lines from abortions, and/or that were tested using tissues from aborted babies, as long as the abortions occurred long ago and the person receiving the shot(s) had no involvement with them (Commentaries by Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk “Is mandating a vaccine ethical?” Oct. 22 and “Should I get vaccinated?” Dec. 3). Actually, previous statements from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith dating back as far as the 2008 instruction “Dignitas Personae” allow for grave reasons to justify acceptance of such vaccines as long as recipients register their objections and lobby public officials to offer ethical replacements. Wow! Using this amazing rationalization, one could buy a lampshade made from a Holocaust victim’s skin, since it happened in the distant past and the buyer wasn’t involved in the slaughter. Or one could use medicines produced from human experimentation victims (China excels in this approach) as long as the treatments save lives and recipients are innocent of their production. Oh, but be sure to let the vendor know (and maybe some government officials, too) that this really isn’t very nice and there ought to be a law to prevent such manufacturing practices in the future. If St. Paul could emphatically instruct new Christians not even to eat meat sacrificed to idols (cf. Acts 15: 21-25, 29; Rom 14: 20-21; 1 Cor 10: 19-22, 28; Rev 2:20), please would some bishop, or maybe Father Pacholczyk, tell me how I could morally let a doctor give me ANY treatment produced in the murder of an innocent child?

Anne Collopy
All Saints, Lakeville

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