Following are NCR reader responses to recent news articles, opinion columns and theological essays with letters that have been edited for length and clarity.
Women were deacons
The most important fact missing from Elizabeth Schrader Polczer’s “In consideration of a female diaconate, look to Mary Magdalene” (ncronline.org, July 20, 2024) is the history of women
sacramentally ordained as deacons, in both the East and the West. There is great danger in suggesting an unordained “female diaconate,” which seems to be what Pope Francis suggested in his CBS-TV interview with Norah O’Donnell. Women can no longer be officially second-class citizens in the Catholic Churches. One sign of hope is the Orthodox Church in Zimbabwe recently restoring the tradition of ordained women deacons.
JAZMIN JIMENEZ
Manhattan Beach, California
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Pro-life women not single-issue voters
As a life-long Democrat and Catholic, I have not been a single-issue voter. I was somewhat shocked at Michael 's article on the issue of women's reproductive rights. The issue is much more complicated than abortion.
Over the years I have developed my conscience with prayer, reading and retreats. I am committed to justice, peace and freedom of choice. Implying that Catholics would leave the democratic party because of women's right to choose is ludicrous and judgmental.
I personally do not believe in abortion for the sake of abortion. But I cannot impose my Catholic belief system on other women's choices — That's what the White Nationalists are attempting to do. I reject that approach. Michael needs to listen to the women talking at the democratic convention tonight and hear their stories about the choices they were forced to make.
I usually enjoy Michael's articles from which I learn many important nuances, but his argument that Democrats are leaving the party because of abortion is presumptuous. We women are more nuanced than that.
JOYCE DUROSKO
Monroe, Michigan
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Trump's immigration lethal to democracy
J. Kevin Appleby’s column about Trump’s immigration plans focused on important effects on the nation and church (ncronline.org, Aug. 12, 2024). But it did not show the total impact of this phase of Trump’s approach to Gonzo Governance that attacks our basic institutions and entrenched values. He did not discuss the actual risks that Trump’s plan poses for the Latino community when police and Border Patrol agents round up people who look Hispanic. Previous mass deportations of the Hispanic community were human rights and civil rights disasters. The Welfare Repatriation Deportation of the 1930s deported nearly two million people, half of whom were U. S. citizens. Two decades later (1954-55) the Eisenhower administration enacted Operation Wetback and deported another million Hispanic residents that included tens of thousands of American citizens. More recently (mid 2000s) Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies engaged in "immigration patrols" and arrested hundreds of Hispanic persons who were racially profiled in Phoenix, Arizona. When Arpaio refused a court order to stop the practice, he was convicted of criminal contempt, but was later pardoned by President Trump. Donald Trump poses real risks to the Hispanic community.
DR. DAVID L. ALTHEIDE
Solana Beach, California
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