Editorial

Do you have the feeling that the real Christmas season is disappearing? Instead of preparing for the birthday of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we seem to be in the midst of a bland holiday festival filled with snowmen, reindeer, and decorated trees with no mention of Christmas in sight!

Christmas parties are being censored. Nativity scenes are banned. A Breakfast with Santa fund-raiser planned at a public elementary school in Warwick, N.Y., was reworked into a "Winter Wonderland Breakfast" (with Frosty the Snowman). It's even hard to find a religious Christmas card in the stores.

Demise of Christmas. The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has been monitoring the demise of Christmas with its "Christmas Watch" program. About the Breakfast with Santa fiasco, Catholic League President Bill Donohue commented, "There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution, of course, that bans 'Breakfast with Santa' from taking place in a public school. This has nothing to do with the law - it has everything to do with bowing to the pressure of bigots. This is the new utilitarianism: the greatest good for the least number of people."

What happened to freedom of expression and freedom of religion? Wouldn't it be better if our public schools and public places included an opportunity to learn about all religious traditions?

To show how silly this has gotten, an appeals court decided that New York City public schools could display a menorah during Hanukkah and a star and crescent during Ramadan. But the schools could not display a nativity scene at Christmas time. The court said the menorah and star and crescent were not "religious" symbols, but the nativity scene was religious. I think Jews and Muslims would disagree!

Celebrate the reason for the season. So what can we do about the disappearance of Christmas? I guess the most important thing is to continue to celebrate the real reason for the season: the birth of Jesus. I suggest that Catholics should not be afraid to wish people a "Merry Christmas." We could display a nativity scene or sign in our home or yard. We should send Christmas cards with a religious theme.

We could also affirm public efforts to remember the religious aspects of the season. For example, I was especially impressed by the Madison Symphony Orchestra's Christmas Spectacular on December 1. This was really a true Christmas concert. John DeMain directed the symphony in excerpts from Bach's Magnificat and Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" from the Messiah. (One of the guest soloists was Jamie-Rose Guarrine, a soprano who used to sing with the St. Raphael Cathedral Choir - she is now in Minneapolis. Her high notes on "Laudamus te" from Messa di Gloria were positively angelic!)

Adding to the faith-filled focus of the concert was the lively Mt. Zion Gospel Choir, which joined the Madison Symphony Chorus and Madison Youth Choirs on some numbers. Many audience members clapped along with the Gospel Choir's renditions of "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" and "Go Tell It on the Mountain."

Jesus Christ is born! That is the reason for the season - one we should shout from the rooftops! Let's do what we can to bring Christmas back to life this year.

Mary C. Uhler

Mailbag

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Don't blame church leaders
for failing to teach members

To the editor:

Bill Wineke (column in the November 18 issue of the Wisconsin State Journal) surmises that many Catholics ignore and disobey Church teachings because "the church has done an inept job of convincing its members." Wineke suspects that the reason why is there's a difference between "teaching" and "convincing."

Much was taught me through a Catholic school and the church. However, I was convinced it was not me who needed change, but the church. I obeyed teachings that didn't interfere with my lifestyle and in the process became my own worst enemy. Had I truly followed all church teachings, my attendance at Hard Knock School (HKS) wouldn't have been nearly as painful or long. My classmates at HKS influenced me and I then spread this "wealth" to others.

During his struggles to give up his lifestyle to fully accept the church, St. Augustine prayed, "Give me charity and continence, but not yet." My plea was more like, "Hurry up and help! No, wait!"

No bishop or other church leader failed in teaching me. I chose to remain unconvinced.

Barbara J. Hetzel, Spring Green

Still another war being waged: on unborn children

To the editor:

Every one of the referendums in Wisconsin to end the war in Iraq passed. And the marriage amendment passed in eight states. Praise God! We know that marriage should be only between one man and one woman. We know that the war must be stopped.

But there is still another war being waged that not enough people care enough about: the war on the unborn child. These children have been forgotten by the majority of Catholics, it seems. Otherwise, Mark Green would have won the election for governor, not Doyle.

The Catholics who voted for Doyle need to realize their responsibility before God. Abortion violates the commandment "Thou shalt not kill." I cannot sit idly by and watch millions of babies having their lives snatched away before being able to take their first breath.

Why are so many Catholics continuing to be ignorant and uncaring that Doyle is completely for abortion and standing hand in hand with Planned Parenthood? Do not people realize he has and will continue to veto every pro-life legislation that comes across his desk?

Please, I beg my Catholic family whom I love, to think more deeply about pro-life issues in the future. Because the way we're headed now, there is no future when we don't take care to see that every child is protected under law - born and unborn. Without the right to life, there are no other rights. It is the most basic and fundamental right.

Please pray for our priests to become more holy and bold, like Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, and speak out passionately on behalf of our unborn. We have another chance in two years.

Anne Rookey, Middleton