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Wrong priorities
I am fed up with hearing and reading about the Diocesan Debt. It seems to have attracted an amazing amount of interest; questions asked. Bishop Patrick apologising etc. For goodness sake, we are not in debt to an outsider, accruing great interest. Surely we are a Diocese and as a member of this Diocese and a parishioner, whose money has gone into the Central fund, it does not make me lose any sleep. The Diocese won’t collapse because of it, and as the saying goes "It is only money" What really does concern me is the moral values in our lives. Hundreds of babies are killed every day, many people have to turn to drugs for relief from their many problems. Our young people are living together and not concerned about the Sacrament of Marriage. Many are homeless. We are on the brink of "being helped to die". I don't hear any questions asked about these or any apologies made for them.
I recently sent a letter to the Voice enclosing a copy of the Pro Life Times, highlighting an article by a Catholic Teacher in a Catholic School, appalled by the Sex Education given by a nurse coining into the school. Also that money given to the NSPCC, who openly acknowledge that they refer young girls for abortion to the Brook Advisory Centre. It didn’t even get a comment, not even one line. So much for our concern for all these things. Have we got our priorities wrong?.
Hilda Greenway
St.Annes on Sea

Priorities again
In response to Father Tony Ashcroft comments re focusing our attention on what is most important to improve attendance at Church, I agree with him. I also think we need to do something about the hymns we use in Church, very nice for the oldies perhaps, but what about the desires of our young people. It seems to me we are unable to leave the good old forty's era behind. Young people like to be appreciated for their talents, and to share them with others. Would you think it possible to encourage or rather invite our young people to come forward and provide music for our Sunday Mass. What a great Apostolate for a Chaplain in our Schools ? It needs great dedication as I know having been a member of a Folk Group in the seventies during the thirteen years of my time ,you would not find standing room in the Church, young and old. We need to bend the rules and remember our young people are the future Church. The Taize Music is extremely popular with the young.
Sr Eileen Grimes H.C.J.
Blackpool

And Again
I have been thinking about Julie Nicholson, the vicar who has decided to step down from her job because she cannot forgive the killers of her daughter in the 9/11 bombings. When I first heard this I tended to agree that with "violence in her thoughts" she may have made the right decision. On further thought though I wondered if every clergyman or woman stepped down temporarily while they solved this or that lack of faith or tried to avoid sinning while they stood at the altar, we would not have many of them left. St Peter denounced Jesus and said he never knew him, when the chips were down and many ran away. It is a strange thing that when people admit their own weaknesses and sins while in a position of power in the church, they think that their vulnerability will lead to their downfall whilst the Bible says the very opposite "My grace is made perfect in weakness", in other words we have to rely more on God (while admitting our weakness) and not on our own good works or anything we have done. In deed there is nothing that we can do for God, we can only accept his grace. What greater example of weakness could this lady be to us? Far from stepping down, I think she should be promoted.
Liz Alty
Preston

Carrying the can
With all respect for Paul Conneely's charitable anxiety to avoid blaming those who got us into the present mess, to blame "the system" instead is a cop-out, and to say that "we all bear collective responsibility" for it is simply untrue. Few people knew anything of it, and I doubt how many of those who did could understand it.
When action is needed, as Margaret Thatcher rightly said, there is no such thing as society; it has to be taken by individuals, usually identifiable individuals. If proper management accounting systems were not in place, the fault clearly lay with the management itself, and the rest of us were in no position to do anything about it. Recriminations over that fault are unhelpful, but to deny that anyone had personal responsibility for it is nonsense.
Peter Wilson
Seascale

Why Go To Church?
A Churchgoer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the clergy are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all." This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:
"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this ... They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"
A Parrini
Carlisle