* End this 'faith on our own terms' - Frank Philips (22/1/95)
* Let's return to real world - Simone Crawley (29/1/95)
* Motivated by greed - Wanda Oberman (29/1/95)
* Ethic issue - Martin Evans (29/1/95)
* A welcome for animals in His kingdom - Joan Scowcroft (29/1/95)
* What about the unborn? - Norah Conway (5/2/95)
* Christians should act to stop these evil deeds - Wanda Oberman
(12/2/95)
* Every living thing should be valued - Colin Pounder PhD (12/2/95)
* Condemn this sinful cruelty to animals - Jennifer Pothecary
(9/7/95)
* Barbarism puts Church to shame - Wanda Oberman (9/7/95)
* Why the birds had to be shot - Margaret Parish (16/7/95)
* Inhumane hypocrite - Sylvia Peters (23/7/95)
* Terrible choice to make - H. Mason (30/7/95)
* Does the Church care for animals? - David P.J. Doble (31/12/95)
End this 'faith on our own terms'
Susan Griffiths' letter prompts the questions: has she not heard of
Our Lord's words to the woman found in adultery. "Go and sin no more"
and also, "You cannot serve two masters - God and mammon"?
Christina Cameron, UCM secretary in Wrexham, in the same issue of
The Universe, is reported as having said: "If animals aren't in
heaven then I don't want to go there." Is this not a great insult to the
Holy Trinity? What muddled thinking. "Christianity on our own terms"
seems to be on the increase among all Christian Churches.
The Father's will is for us to submit, completely to him, follow the
teaching of Jesus, aided by being open to the work of the Holy Spirit.
Frank Philips (22/1/95)
Let's return to real world
I had flu over Christmas. Every evening, I gazed at the silhouette of
the trees, standing out against the apricot and gold sky. The beauty of
the sunset was breathtaking and filled me with joy.
Electric lighting has robbed us of four great sources of joy: the
starry sky, the moonlight, the sunrise and the sunset.
We are part of nature, and we slot into it like a piece in a jigsaw
puzzle. Yet, we choose to live in a man-made world.
The monks used to live out of doors. They worked in the fields or
meditated or read in the monastery garden. Could we spend more time in
the real world, the world which God has made? Could we, like Adam in the
Garden of Eden, walk with God in the evening of the day?
Simone Crawley (29/1/95)
Motivated by greed
May Bocking of the Catholic Study Circle for Animal Welfare (The Ark)
is right in pointing out that we have been campaigning against the
export of live animals for food and all the cruelty involved for the
past 20 years (The Universe, January 15).
Our campaigns have taken the form of reasoned argument and quiet
persuasion in exposing the quite unnecessary cruelty involved in
"factory farming".
The market economy is driven by profit and safeguarding animal
welfare gives way to greed.
As Christians, we each have a responsibility to ourselves, our fellow
humans and to all God's creatures. We have an individual responsibility
to act with compassion and show respect to those who are weak and cannot
speak for themselves and this includes all God's Creation.
Does not history show the terrible cruelties inflicted by the
powerful exerting their will over the weak?
It is no argument for Catholic farmers to say that unless we continue
to export calves to the continent, then the veal producers will get
their calves from Eastern bloc countries and that would involve even
more cruelty.
Cruelty is cruelty.
It is our complacency that allows these cruel practices to continue
and brings about the incidences of violence that we have seen recently.
Wanda Oberman (29/1/95)
See Article & Editorial:
http://www.all-creatures.org/fol/art-20101007-2.html
Ethic issue
In the words of your editorial, "the export of live calves raises a
host of ethical questions".
The greatest of these must be: why is it an apparent majority of our
people are more concerned at alleged mistreatment of calves than about
the continued slaughter of children in their mother's womb?
Martin Evans (29/1/95)
A welcome for animals in His kingdom
I would ask Frank Philips the same question he asked Susan Griffiths
- has he not heard Our Lord's words?
For if he has ever read - and taken in - John's Apocalypse he could
not accuse Christina Cameron of muddled thinking without having muddled
thoughts in his own head.
Why do I say that with utter confidence?
The Apocalypse is difficult to understand, yet there are certain
statements in it that are as clear as daylight, and chapter 21, verse 5
is one of them.
"And he who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.'
(These words I was bidden write down. words most sure and true)."
So John not only received the message that all things would be made
new but he was told to record it, which obviously shows that it was
meant for the world.
God says what he means and means what he says, and as he said: 'I
make all things new"; he must have meant all things, and that could
include animals and things that grow from the earth and live in the sea,
as well as you and me.
So to Christina Cameron I would say, "Don't be doubtful, for they
will be there." And I know priests who believe that, too."
Joan Scowcroft (29/1/95)
What about the unborn?
Thanks to Charles Moore for his article (The Universe, Jan
15). I agree with everything he says. Commendable as the protest is over
the suffering of animals, why are so many blind to the suffering and
killing of the unborn child?
Norah Conway (5/2/95)
Christians should act to stop these evil deeds
I must reply to Martin Evans' letter (Universe, Jan 29) on the
ethical issues on the export of calves for intensive veal production and
the matter of abortion.
He asked "why an apparent majority of our people are more concerned
at the alleged mistreatment of calves than about the continued slaughter
of children in their mother's womb".
I agree with him absolutely and emphatically that the slaughter of
children in their mother's womb is wrong - I also think it is equally
wrong to exploit God's creatures by deliberate cruelty for profit.
In highlighting the issue of animal cruelty, I want to make it
absolutely clear that I am not promoting one cause at the expense of the
other.
Both are wrong.
Edmund Burke said "all that is required for the triumph of evil is
that good men do nothing". Christians should be speaking out on these
issues and for my part, I support both causes.
Wanda Oberman (12/2/95)
Every living thing should be valued
In this age of excuses, a dreadful dichotomy is creeping in to
separate compassion from means.
Each week I long to respond in some material way to all the appeals
in The Universe.
But God help me I cannot and I grieve. However, I can love, have
compassion and pray.
It is a dangerous practice to begin separating living things into
some order for consideration.
We may not have the material means to do much but each of us is a
stream fed from an inexhaustible fountain of love, compassion and mercy.
The calves matter, the unborn matter, the little, the least and the
lost matter. We need to revere the greatest gift - life.
If we begin to categorise the relative importance of things which
live we adopt a slaughterhouse mentality. From which it is but a short
step to indifference, cruelty and death camps.
Colin Pounder PhD (12/2/95)
Condemn this sinful cruelty to animals
There is a banner at Shoreham Harbour which speaks volumes: 'All that
is needed for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. Good
people come and join us'.
I know the old chestnut will be thrown back to me that the Church is
so busy with the problems of the world, that the problems of cruelty to
animals take second place. I cannot agree, because concerned with the
problems of cruelty to animals are usually people who have enough
capacity for concern to be able to encompass compassion for animals and
their fellow man.
The practice of exporting animals for slaughter is not only cruel but
also total hypocrisy because the slaughter of animals by slitting their
throats without previously stunning is banned in Britain and the
practice of keeping calves in veal crates is banned in Britain, so how
can it be legal to export animals to that fate?
The Church should condemn what is a sin of cruelty, but so far has
remained horribly silent.
Jennifer Pothecary (9/7/95)
Barbarism puts Church to shame
What a tragedy that Vicki Moore has been so horribly injured in Spain
by the very creature she was trying to help.
How ironic that while videoing the cruelty at the fiesta in the
Spanish village of Coria she should be gored by a bull which had been
deliberately tormented as part of the entertainment.
Vicki has been tireless in her courage in highlighting and exposing
the abominable cruelty deliberately inflicted on animals as part of so
called religious fiestas and we must all pray for her and her family at
this worrying time.
How can the Catholic Church continue to sanction such barbaric
disregard to God's creatures in the name of Christianity?
As a convert to the Catholic faith, I reel in horror at the way
innocent animals are subjected to the same sort of cruelty that was once
endured by the early Christians in Rome - all in the name of
entertainment. Such barbarism is an absolute outrage and puts the Church
to shame.
Wanda Oberman (9/7/95)
See Article:
http://www.all-creatures.org/fol/art-20100625-1.html
Why the birds had to be shot
It was disappointing to see The Universe join in the somewhat
hysterical and one-sided account of the action taken by the parish
priest of our church, by the (acknowledged) humane method used to tackle
a problem caused by pigeons.
The birds, which roost in the very high spire, have been known to be
a threat to hygiene for many years and have been removed before, perhaps
in a less acceptable way than that used now.
No-one enjoys the necessity for carrying out unpleasant jobs, but
this is not the way to treat a priest and certainly not one of the
calibre of Fr Mullen: this sort of report is unworthy of a Catholic
newspaper.
Margaret Parish (16/7/95)
See Article:
http://www.all-creatures.org/fol/art-20100616-2.html
Inhumane hypocrite
I read an article in The Universe about a priest, a man of
God, who took it upon himself to have 70 pigeons destroyed in a most
wicked and inhumane way for daring to perch on God's house.
There is an answer to the problem.
Cover the church roof with fine wire about 4" above the building - no
bird will settle in the future.
The priest sounds like a person that stands in the pulpit and sings,
All Things Bright and Beautiful. What a hypocrite.
Sylvia Peters (23/7/95)
Terrible choice to make
How much I agree with Margaret Parish (The Universe, July 16).
I feel very sorry for the priest of the said parish who must have had a
terrible choice to make to have the birds destroyed.
I can't help wondering if the same number of abortions had been
carried out on that day (and most probably was) would there have been
the same outcry? I think not.
Come on, let's get our priorities right.
H. Mason (30/7/95)
Does the Church care for
animals?
Living near Brightlingsea, I have witnessed at first hand the
suffering inflicted upon sheep and calves whilst being exported.
It is well documented that there are many other aspects of cruelty
dealt out to animals by humans. It is interesting to note that Catholic
countries are top of the league in animal cruelty.
My question is a simple one: why does the Catholic Church, which
teaches love and compassion, condone animal cruelty by remaining silent
on these issues?
David P.J. Doble (31/12/95)
Reproduced with thanks
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