Dear Dr. Horvat,

Thank you for your critique of the Papal Letter to the Church in China. While nobody seems to have taken notice of this letter, I agree that it appears to allow all the evils you mention. I am particularly concerned of the tremendous confusion in the mind of the Holy Father between good-will and reality.

The Church always has good will and prefers reconciliation; but the Communist Government of China has no good will, and has never shown any: the reality is therefore that Catholics cannot cooperate with the Government in matters of religion without putting themselves and their families in grave mortal danger of death, imprisonment, and loss of all goods, rights, and property.

To ask this of the Faithful in China is to hand them over to the wolves. The Holy Father in the name of peace at all cost has shown himself to be a irenicist with Communists. Yet at the same time he demands in his letter accompanying his recent Motu Proprio on the Liturgy, no compromise with those Catholics who firmly oppose modernism (no priest, he says, may in principle refuse the New Rites).

I believe every reasonable Catholic must honestly consider whether such unreasonable and unjust requests are in any way morally obliging, seeing that St. Peter infallibly taught, "It is better for us to obey God, than man."

In any event, the Holy Father has shown himself to be a man with very little interest in consistency, morality and dogmatic truth.

     Br. Alexis Bugnolo

TIA,

I write this having read your article on Benedict's scandalous letter to the Catholics of China, as well as the original document at the Vatican site.

My initial reaction is to wonder whether this man is Pope or a pseudo-Pope. Again and again, the post-Vatican II "Popes" do what they can to ask forgiveness of the Communists, while destroying the One True Faith.

I am finding it increasingly difficult to acknowledge JPII and Benedict as popes. I ask myself: "Would it be better to have no Pope than to have one of these last two pretenders playing the role?" My answer is an emphatic "Yes!" This being the case, what difference does it mean if I acknowledge them as popes or not?

How can I have any respect for, or acknowledge as leader of the Church, a man who hates much, if not all, it stands for? Why should I not believe that JPII and Benedict are Communist themselves? I know one thing, these two, along with Communism, are the greatest tools that Satan has/has had, and my enemies.

But I continue to pray for my enemies.

     In Jesu et Maria,

     J.S.

Hello,

In your recent article on Pope Benedict's Letter to China, you wrote,

Finally, Benedict revokes "all previously granted faculties and directives designed to address particular necessities in truly difficult times. "What does this mean? Nothing less that wiping away those directives by his predecessors granting special privileges to the underground Church, e.g.:

* The faculties that allowed underground Catholic Bishops to ordain other Bishops and priests;

* Directives advising the underground Catholics to avoid receiving sacraments from bishops or priests who belonged to the CCPA;

* The 1988 guideline that said any bishop ordained by CCPA would incur an automatic excommunication.

How can the faithful Chinese Catholics follow such a cruel and illogical directive? Are they bound to do this truly? It seems to me that once the underground clergy are known they will be killed, martyred for true Catholicism actually.

It is so exasperating. Our Lady must help them.

     In Our Mother,

     P.J.

Dear Friends,

As a young girl in the 1960's, our parents, who were staunch anti-Communists, taught us our daily night prayers which included praying for "the people behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtain." One night, I finally asked my parents who exactly were these people behind a "bamboo curtain." After all, I pictured these people behind these bamboo and iron curtains and why would they need prayers? What did this mean?

My parents explained to me that these were the good people - even Catholics - who suffered many privations due to Communism. They explained to me that many of them were persecuted- even tortured, starved and killed for being Catholic. Russia and China were the main sources of this scourge.

Has the world forgotten these suffering peoples? Do they still exist? What has happened from that time of my night prayers in the 1960's until now? Is Communism dead? Is the world just one big happy "socio-economical" family enjoying each other's company? These people do exist and they DO SUFFER!!!

The epitome of a Catholic Pope Saint, Pope Pius X, fought Modernism and Communism. The Daily Catholic wrote this about Pope St. Pius X:

"Never one to compromise or capitulate when it came to Dogmas, Doctrines and the teachings of Christ and His Church, Pius X had more than a few run-ins with world powers Russia, the United States, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and of course, France. "Diplomacy be damned" was Pius' watchword if any of these countries promoted Liberalism in any way. He sought to cut this evil off at the roots. He had meticulously studied Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum and realized the Communist threat as well as the even more insidious Freemasonry agenda and the clever way they had both crept in. Therefore he sought to prevent any reoccurrence or allow it to infiltrate the Church by educating the faithful to the errors of Modernism, Communism and Nationalism. For this he made more than a few enemies of the Church in countries we have mentioned above.

"Though he did not die a martyr, he felt like one as the world press attacked him from all angles, yet Pius X stayed the course and would not waver from his convictions and his total dedication to Christ's holy cause. He cared not for what people thought, but what his Lord and Savior thought, unlike the Popes of Vatican II who base their programs on pleasing man and incur the rebukes of the Apostle Paul in Galatians 1: 8-10."

There is quite a difference in thought between Pope St. Pius X and Pope Benedict XVI. I could only read the article Benedict Delivers Chinese Underground Catholics to Communism - and weep and pray for the suffering underground Church in China and all other peoples persecuted under the scourge of Communism!

Our Lady of Shishan, pray for us!

     K.H.

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