Don’t withhold sacraments

I am crying for my Catholic brothers and sisters in the Springfield, Illinois, diocese (“Bishop prohibits Catholics in same-sex unions from receiving Communion,” July 13). Where is Christ when you need him? Are the rest of us so perfect that we take for granted these outward signs of God’s grace, while condemning other people created in God’s same image, and bar them from those gifts?

Find Jesus’ words condemning people who love each other; find the passages where Jesus doesn’t embrace “the other.” Are we to believe that every person before same-sex unions who experienced the holy Eucharist, or an anointing with holy oils or a Catholic funeral, had been free of all sin? It is no wonder that our Church is in such turmoil. God has given the greatest of all gifts to us: love. And he has shown us what unconditional love is.

When God’s children are living those words, and yet barred from his gifts, how do we even deserve them at all? Still, in spite of all our shortcomings, God continues to love us unconditionally. The least we can do is love God and each other unconditionally as well.

Elizabeth Rosenwinkel
St. Albert the Great, Minneapolis

Health care silence

I am very saddened by the silence of the Spirit on the pending legislation that would remove healthcare from 20-27 million people. With that large number, it is very easy to assume that well over 30,000 people would have an early death due to the lack of health care in a very short period of time.

With the Church’s stand on pro-life from conception till natural death, that support for affordable access to health care is a reasonable expectation.

The lack of moral direction on this subject from this paper and the pulpit needs to change. I am having a tough time understanding the morals that would allow silence on this subject, when the nation is considering giving death sentences to the poor who cannot afford life-sustaining medication.

Steve White
St. Patrick, Shieldsville

Disgusted by topics

I am totally upset and disgusted with two articles in the July 13 issue. This is not the Catholic Church of Pope Francis that I know and love. I am wondering how worthwhile it is to receive a paper like this or to spend even a moment reading it. The articles are “Bishop prohibits Catholics in same-sex unions from receiving Communion” and “Mom should know her place in son’s marital challenges.”

Father Michael Schmitz obviously knows nothing about marriage and certainly nothing about NFP. He should interview at least 100 couples who have tried this. For all kinds of reasons, it does not work. I don’t ordinarily spend time writing a letter like this, but I could not let these articles go by without comment.

Agnes Wolf
St. William, Fridley

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