Dear TIA,

Many of us were saddened to learn of Mel Gibson's divorce and his girlfriend's debut in Los Angeles last week.

We pray someone of Catholic authority will speak up and publicly reprimand him for the scandal and hypocrisy.

Since his local Cardinal and nearest Bishop are not so concerned, please consider posting one Catholic's "open letter" to him on your website.

Thank you!

     In Jesus, Mary & Joseph

     Frank Scanlon



Open Letter to Mel Gibson

Feast of St. Pope Pius V, May 5, 2009

Dear Mr. Gibson

In the wake of your sad divorce and the public display of your mistress, we'd like to reiterate the Church's 2,000 year old teaching on the Sacrament of Marriage:

In God's eyes, you're not allowed to put-out your wife of 30 years. Furthermore, Miss Grigorieva is an adulteress like Herodius, who St. John the Baptist reprimanded Herod Antipas for by saying: 'It is not lawful for thee to have her' (Matthew 14:4)

You claimed to be a traditional Catholic and profited immensely from our Lord's 'Passion.' This earned you the higher duty of state of a lay Catholic leader. Your responsibility is to live an exemplary life and obey the 10 Commandments. The divorce and mistress are mortal sins and international scandals that will make our Lord and His Church suffer more intensely.

We hope Catholics and non Catholics understand that your behavior will never meet Our Lord's standards or those of His bride, the Holy Catholic Church.

For the sake of your soul, your family and for your fellow Catholics the world over, we pray you will reconsider your mistaken position and make amends.

     In Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

     Frank Scanlon
     VP, Legion of Mary
     St. Aloysius Catholic Church
     Our Mother of Perpetual Help Praesidium
     19301 Bear Creek Road
     St. Aloysius Retreat Center
     Los Gatos, CA, 95033

In the TIA article The Exorcistic Role of Resistance, Fr. Paul Sretenovic refers to several well-known exorcists, including Fr. Malachi Martin and Fr. Gabriel Amorth.

While Fr. Amorth may be well known, his discernment of spirits is abysmal. Please see below article entitled "The Importance of Medjugorje, An Interview with Gabriele Amorth." Especially read highlighted statements.

I suggest you publish this article as a warning to the many traditionalists who like to quote Fr. Amorth as an 'expert'. Expert he may be, but not in discernment of spirits!

I hope that you will refer the below information to Fr. Sretenovic, whose article, with the exception of the above quote, was very well done.

     In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary,

     P.M.V.



TIA responds:

Mrs. P.M.V.,

In any academic work, authors are quoted in reference to what they said in that precise text, and not for anything else. St. Thomas often quotes Aristotle and Plato, both pagans, and the latter a pantheist. St. Thomas should not be judged for the wrong or bad things those pagan authors said in other places. Rather one should consider only those texts that the Angelic Doctor chose to analyze or illustrate a point. This procedure is common in Catholic studies. If you would read Fr. Cornelius a Lapide, one of the greatest commentators of Sacred Scriptures in History, you would be surprised by the gamut of authors pagans, heretics, Jews etc. - whom he quotes in order to arrive at the exact meaning of the Scriptures.

When Fr. Paul Sretenovic mentioned Fr. Gabrile Amorth - a known exorcist - in his article, he did so for the single purpose of establishing the concept of perfect possession, following the habitual Catholic academic method. His commitment to the thinking of Fr. Amorth stopped there. Everything that he concluded from that concept seems perfectly clear and useful for our readers.

Therefore, your accusations against Fr. Gabriele Amorth as lacking discernment of spirits and possibly supporting Medjougorje are out of place.

We would appreciate it if next time you would consider this scholarly method before issuing a superficial criticism.

     Cordially,

     TIA correspondence desk

Hi there,

Just in response to your Home or Career Dilemma.

While I appreciate your argument, and do think we as a society have lost appreciation for the wife at home, I don't think you can apply your arguments always.

Before my family was Catholic my mother and father divorced. In order to follow her dreams and support us, my mother went through medical school and is not a practising GP. Without this ,there would be no way for her to support her children. Our family become catholic around the same time my mother finished med school.

Furthermore I know of many families where in order to just make ends meet, women need to work. Especially in this age of recession, and economic downturn, many people need to take on more work just to pay mortgages etc. And I don't believe this is at all immoral.

Finally for many single mothers, working is the only option they have.

I'd also like to say that I'm pretty dismayed by your constant attacks on our beloved BXVI. To suggest that his engaging in dialogue and visiting mosques means he is any less Catholic, or damaging to the Catholic faith is outrageous. Sadly, I don't believe you will see it this way and you will continue in defamatory attacks. I pray for your conversion.

     Respectfully yours,

     D.W.

TIA,

I would be most grateful if someone would enlighten me on the pre-Vatican II teaching regarding interfaith projects for social welfare. I understand that Pope Pius XI's Mortalium animos forbade only gatherings for interfaith prayer and religious discussion, but what about official representatives of different faiths joining efforts for the social betterment of mankind?

I am thinking particularly of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, with headquarters in New York City, an ecumenical organization founded in 1928 to advance friendship and cooperation among Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. The Catholic co-Chairman was Carlton Hayes of Columbia University, US ambassador to Spain. Did this organization come under any papal ban?

Many thanks.

     Yours truly,

     Dr. C.B.



TIA responds:

Dr. C.B.,

Regarding the first experiments in ecumenism, you could go back even further and find the tendencies of Catholics in the U.S. to soften the errors of Protestantism with the purported aim of helping Protestants more readily "convert' to the Catholic Faith. This tendency was condemned by Pope Leo XIII under the name of Americanism. Actually it was a pre-figure of present day ecumenism.

The organization you mentioned was, indeed, a forerunner to the inter-religious dialogue of Vatican II that merited the condemnation of Pius XI.

Since Mortalium animus was issued in January 1928, and we believe the National Conference of Christians and Jews was founded in 1927 (not in 1928), one can conclude that it was included in the general condemnation made by that encyclical. We are not aware of a specific condemnation of it.

     Cordially,

     TIA correspondence desk

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