Opinion: U.S. is right to keep pressure on Castro's Cuba

What a refreshing thing to read an account of what life is like for the typical, non-Communist Cuban. This is one of the few accounts I have seen in the press that does not paint the misleading picture of the happiness of the Cuban people under the Castro regime. My observations are not just personal opinions but are the result of a 30-year study of countless sources of life in Cuba.

For those who would insist on lifting America's trade restrictions with Cuba and decry the strong support of the Cuban-Americans who fled the Communist takeover of their country . . . try walking in their shoes. If you lost your home, business, farm, profession and personal possessions to the Communist takeover of this country and fled to Great Britain, don't you think you would pressure the British government to do everything to bring down that Communist-American government?

Castro holds the key to unlocking the door to trade with the United States; he need only allow free elections, honor human rights and release the political prisoners. When that happens, the people of Cuba will benefit from the resurgence of their economy. They, too, will be able to go into grocery stores with shelves stocked with food. It will no longer be just the Communist Party and its power elite that pocket the dollars of tourism and foreign investment in Cuba.

The United States is doing the right thing to keep up the pressure. The people of Cuba, who want to change the system, cannot change it from within the way we can change our government. They have no non-Communist newspapers or TV. They cannot have rallies and protests without disappearing into the prisons. They cannot elect someone who will improve their lot. They cannot even meet in homes without Communist state spys knocking on their doors and reporting them to the party.

As recently as May 2001, Castro, while visiting fellow terrorist regimes in Iraq, Libya and Iran pledged, while in Tehran, "The people and governments of Cuba and Iran can bring the United States to its knees."

Do we really want to help this terrorist government on our doorstep or should we keep at least as watchful an eye as we are keeping on other terrorist regimes half-way around the world?
-- William C. Gregg, Belleair

Back Carter's trip to Cuba

Re: Carter's trip to Cuba is symbolic, March 30.

Let's hope that President Bush will approve former President Jimmy Carter's request to travel to Cuba. It does not appear that the Cuban people have the spirit or the means to bring about significant change under the current conditions in Cuba. Allowing Carter to travel to Cuba to assess the plight of the Cuban people from his own unique perspective would be a diplomatic move in the right direction.

We must move away from our isolationist stance with Cuba and draw the Cuban people into daily interaction with Americans. Recent history in Europe has shown how this can be achieved. We should all support Carter on this initiative.
-- J. Larry McElveen, Belleair Bluffs

Good priests need support

I am writing in defense of the many thousands of priests who have given their lives to the church and are practicing their vocations with holiness and zeal, trying their best to live their lives in perfect reflection of Jesus. These priests are devastated and immensely saddened by the recent scandals involving their brother priests and the sexual abuse of minors. These priests carry a heavy heart for the victims of this horrendous abuse, as well as for the priests who "fell" to this evil temptation. These priests are worried, too, about the effect of all these scandals upon the church and on the faith of its members.

This is a time when we, as members of the body of Christ -- the church -- need to come together in prayer for these dedicated priests who continue to serve God and keep true to the vows they made at their ordination to the priesthood. We need to come together in prayer for the spiritual and emotional healing of the victims of this horrible abuse, as well as for our "fallen" brothers in Christ.

Finally, I wish to give thanks to our God for all holy priests, especially those who serve us here in the Diocese of St. Petersburg and who are doing their best to live their lives in perfect reflection of Christ.
-- Maria Tammaro, Spring Hill

Celibacy is the price of admission

Re: At the top, a man both alone and troubled, by Mary Jo Melone and Swept under the Vatican rug, by Maureen Dowd, March 26.

A priest is not an ordinary man. He is one who was called to consecrate himself with undivided heart and to give himself entirely to the Lord. Celibacy is a sign of this new life, unconditionally accepted with joy. At ordination, when the Bishop proclaims, "Thou art a priest forever," the man becomes extraordinary.

Mary Jo Melone and Maureen Dowd just don't get it. Melone, feeling sorry for our bishop, pictures him as a lonely man with "no place to go and no way for his longings for closeness to take honest shape."

"Someday," she writes, "Catholicism will be more forgiving of the desires of the men it draws to be priests . . . Priests could marry then." What arrogance. Marriage is not always the solution for loneliness and, by the way, is never the cure for pedophilia.

Dowd, with no substantiation, boldly states, "mandatory celibacy draws a disproportionate number of men fleeing confusion about their sexuality." Preposterous. "Celibacy italicizes sex at the very heart of the identity of the priesthood," she pontificated. No. Celibacy italicizes the priest. It's one of the traits that sets him apart. Predictably, she concludes, "to save itself," the church needs to go to the "one place it's unwilling to go . . . shedding its dysfunctional, all-male, all-celibate, all-closed culture." The anger in that irresponsible presumption is seen in her disrespectful closing: "Three Hail Marys and two Our Fathers will not be enough."

Celibacy is the price of admission to the life of unalloyed happiness in the priesthood. It is a magnificent sacrifice for the special "calling" for which few are "chosen." Why some would enjoy the life but fail to pay is a mystery and a disgrace. But, we should not blame celibacy. We should blame the men who broke that sacred vow.
-- Jack Bray, Dunedin

Remember the good the church does

The media have bombarded us with all the negatives regarding the Catholic Church in recent weeks, and I would like to give credit where credit is due by accentuating the positive for a change.

I would like to acknowledge the good works of the many fine priests, lay people and organizations we have in the Catholic Church today -- for instance, those who open their church doors to the homeless when the weather turns cold. The St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen, through many Catholic volunteers, is able to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the stranger and visit the sick in hospitals and the lonely in nursing homes.

The good works of the Catholic Church are endless and by far overshadow the improprieties of the few who give in to the weaknesses of the flesh to which you devoted so much recent news coverage.
-- Len Vivolo, Clearwater

When power is abused

It has been interesting to read the responses to our local Catholic sex controversy. Some question why Bill Urbanski did not simply refuse to cooperate with the uncomfortable requests. The answer is the requests were coming from someone both in a lifelong position of trust and a professional position of power. These are the advantages the perpetrator has when abusing power. Ask any woman who has been in this position with her employer. Perpetrators step outside of the normal boundaries to set their victims emotionally and psychologically off-balance, and their levels of abuse begin subtly and increase over time.

Some propose that a married clergy would eliminate the problem, but sexual abuse and sexual harassment have nothing to do with marital status or orientation, only misuse of power. Married men and women are also among the abusers.

Whether the bishop was guilty of sexual harassment, loneliness, or just poor judgment is not mine to determine. If my boss asked me to pose in my swimsuit so that he could photograph me, I would see that as far beyond the scope of "other duties as assigned," and I, too, would (pardon the pun) seek redress.

I believe celibacy is a spiritual gift, and that fewer are genuinely given it than the number who vow to live it. Humans have needs, and celibacy, as St. Paul observed, is not for everybody.

My prayers go out for Bill Urbanski that he will never regret the courage and voice that he found and expressed; for Bishop Robert Lynch, that he will find in this passage the transforming grace God offers all of us; and for the church universal that it will become more compassionate in the ways it understands humans and in the expectations it holds for all.
-- Tony Buchwalter, Clearwater

An insidious form of bigotry

Re: To choose a life of celibacy, by James Martin, March 28.

Numerous letters and this column by James Martin propose that celibacy in Catholic clergy is basic to "loving many people deeply, in a way that they would be unable to if they were in a single relationship." This is a basic tenet of the Catholic Church, and implies that members of the clergy of faiths which do not require celibacy cannot love people as deeply as do members of the Catholic clergy. This insidious form of bigotry does little to further the love of humankind.
-- Martin Klemperer, St. Petersburg

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