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Letters to the Editor

Two Catholic journalists who made a difference

Jesse Atienza • Feb 09, 2026
How appropriate that, as reflected in your tributes in the Feb. 6 issue, Catholic writers Russell Shaw and John L. Allen Jr. both passed from this life just days apart.  Both men were so important for modern American Catholicism, influencing how the Church was perceived and understood ... especially by Catholics themselves!  For example, Allen’s book about Opus Dei helped me reconsider some of the prejudices I had about the movement. Later, Shaw’s “Eight Popes and the Crisis of Modernity” actually helped me understand the pontificate of Pope Francis (even though he wasn’t one of the eight popes discussed).  Kudos to Angelus for featuring both of these giants in your pages over the years. Not many publications can boast that. — Jesse Atienza, Miami, Florida

Comforted by Leo’s spiritual role model

Marilyn Boussaid • Jan 26, 2026
Despite its somewhat cannibalistic-sounding title, the article “The cook who prepared a pope” in the Jan. 9 issue on our Holy Father’s attraction to Brother Lawrence’s spirituality, as expressed in “The Practice of the Presence of God,” was more like comfort food. The article endeared Pope Leo XIV to me even more than before. It’s somehow very comforting to imagine our pope having interior conversations with the Lord throughout the day, in the manner of Brother Lawrence.  As a Jewish convert to the Catholic faith, this spirituality seems to me to have its roots in Judaism. I’m sure that Jesus is entirely comfortable with this kind of relationship, listening to us as we commune with him like Tevye chatting with God in “Fiddler on the Roof.”  — Marilyn Boussaid, St. James Church, Redondo Beach

My experience fighting assisted suicide

Keith Rothfus • Jan 12, 2026
The interview on assisted suicide in the Dec. 26 issue was a timely commentary on a series of new laws that give in to the belief that there are lives not worth living.  How many times do we hear news that a friend or an acquaintance died by suicide? Our hearts break. “Oh no,” we whisper, “if only I had known how bad it was, could I have made a difference?” Would we feel any better if that person had died by suicide with the help of a physician? In my final term in Congress, I and several other members tried to encourage the House to use its legal authority to block Washington, D.C.’s assisted suicide law that became effective in 2017. However, the institutional pro-life lobby was not asking Congress to act. There were concerns that if the vote did not pass, it would set a bad precedent.   The lesson learned from this experience: Legislators need to hear the voices of those opposed to assisted suicide legislation. Americans have the freedom to speak and petition their government.   — Keith Rothfus, Sewickley, Pennsylvania, former U.S. Representative, Pennsylvania’s Twelfth Congressional District, 2013-2019

Naming assisted suicide for what it is

Jacqueline M. Nolan-Haley • Jan 12, 2026
The interview on the future of assisted suicide (“Devalued to Death,” Dec. 26 issue) asks whether it is inevitable that assisted suicide will become common and legal in this country. The answer may depend upon the success of marketing techniques that separate the idea of assisted suicide from the idea of killing.  What the California Medicine Journal wrote about abortion in 1970 is relevant today with suicide: “Since the old ethic has not yet been fully displaced it has been necessary to separate the idea of abortion from the idea of killing which continues to be socially abhorrent…” Today, the new ethic associates assisted suicide with autonomy and compassionate care. Like abortion, it is put forth under “socially impeccable auspices.” But the back story needs to be told — the targeting of people with disabilities, the elderly, and inconvenient others. Assisted suicide needs to be recognized for what it is — a threat to vulnerable populations, an affront to human dignity, and a violation of federal anti-discrimination laws. — Jacqueline M. Nolan-Haley, New York

A call to mental disarmament

James Hanna • Dec 22, 2025
In an interview question to Matt Valliére in the Dec. 26 Angelus, Pablo Kay mentioned that “some people compare the assisted suicide issue with abortion.” That’s fine, but I submit the issue may also be framed through the pacifist lens of war, in this case the war on human dignity, which is every bit as militaristic, since it involves people using tools to take a targeted human life.  The solution? As the late Sister M. Fides Shepperson wrote: “Mental disarmament must precede military.” Minds must be changed, even perhaps one single mind, as in the case of Delaware’s legislation. Civil authority must legislate for the common good. In what world would the Canadian legislation be considered in the common good? There is a reason the dignity of the human person is the keystone of Catholic social teaching, and our bishops and priests should be among those leading the civilized world to mental disarmament. — James K. Hanna, McMurray, Pennsylvania

Of euthanasia and euphemisms

Mark Sullivan • Dec 22, 2025
The interview with Matt Vallière in the Dec. 26 issue reminded me of a sign a co-worker had in their cubicle at my first job called “How [Poop] Happens.” In colorful language, it describes how a bad idea or plan becomes “good” through a series of euphemisms and altered wording.  This has happened with euthanasia. Nobody is for prolonged suffering or limits on our autonomy, but on the surface they sound “good.” There will be advocates claiming that assisted suicide is “noble” or that there were no other options. But we know that suffering can’t be entirely removed, and that our autonomy is flawed in that we make bad decisions and then stand on our heads to make justifications for them.  Legislation that protects the dignity of human life is important, but even definitive legislative victories never seem to be that definitive. As Catholics, we can’t let legislation do all our work. We have the responsibility to show that suffering is not some stand-alone “bad” thing. With suffering comes mercy and compassion and purification.  The purest and most powerful autonomy brings with it sacrifice, love, and unexpected joy. The postponed mountain biking trip or unplanned long car ride to visit a sick relative has an unexpected depth that we would never experience if we were only doing the math. — Mark Sullivan, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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