Editor: 

 

Firewise Communities and Concepts provide valuable information to homeowners regarding defensible space, modifying landscaping and utilizing construction improvements to take fuel away from a wildfire. These mitigation practices make the home defendable and help keep ember shower fires from igniting a home. The main fire may be able to pass with little or no damage.  

The Carolina bays and much of the forested land of the Southeast Coastal Plain is fire dependent. This means it will burn and then regenerate. The fuels, or vegetation, are in the same fuel model as the chaparral vegetation of Southern California, just different species. Wind-driven fires have the potential to occur over and over as the fuels, once burned, regenerate and accumulate to levels we have just experienced.

For more information, visit the S.C. Forestry Commission Web site, www.state.sc.us/forest. Homeowners in Horry County can call the S.C. Forestry Commission’s Pee Dee regional office at (843) 662-5571.

I pray with our bishop for the Gosiewski family and all the other homeowners.

Chet F. Foyle

 

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Editor:

 

I am a believer in Catholic education and wish to share with you a success story about my daughter, Lauren Cecilia Barnett Thomas. She was married April 4 at St. Theresa the Little Flower in Summerville.

Lauren attended Divine Redeemer School in Hanahan through eighth grade and graduated from Bishop England in 2003. She was active in many school and civic organizations and she worked part time while in high school. 

She was not the valedictorian or salutatorian of her class, but she achieved academic success and a wonderful education. She discovered her love for science and math while at Bishop England.

She earned 45 AP hours credit and went on to Clemson University in the pre-pharmacy program. She completed the minimum three-year program in just two years because of the credits she earned at Bishop England and was one of the youngest accepted in her doctoral class at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Lauren had the highest grade point average in her doctoral class and  graduated at age 24. All of this about grades and awards is wonderful, but what is most wonderful is that Lauren is a beautiful young lady inside and out and she discovered her chosen career while at Bishop England.

Lauren has accepted a job in retail pharmacy in Charleston. She had offers to continue her education with MUSC and/or in a combined program with The Citadel, but she chose the job in retail pharmacy so she can work with patients directly. She was afforded a strong foundation for her life from her family, her Catholic school education and her own strong work ethic.

I rarely recall seeing her without a pharmacy book in hand over the last four years, 24/7, 12 months a year. She would even study while watching her sister play high school basketball or while watching TV.

Our family is very proud of Lauren.

Marie Barnett

 

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Editor:

 

Letter writers, Deborah Gourdin and Bob Kappler recently supported Notre Dame’s invitation to President Barack Obama to be the commencement speaker and receive an honorary degree. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states on page 547: “abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.”

In the Illinois Senate, President Obama opposed, four times,  a bill to provide care and protection to babies who survive abortions. As president, he reversed President Bush’s ban on using our taxpayer funds for abortions abroad. He is pushing to rescind regulations protecting health providers with moral convictions against abortion. He has vowed to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which eliminates all limits on abortion, including partial birth abortion.

He has overturned Bush’s ban on embryonic stem cell research.  He is advocating abortion coverage in his new health care plan. His appointments to key positions have all been pro-abortion personnel.

A Catholic News Service article by Chaz Muth stated: “U.S. Archbishop Raymond L. Burke called the prospect of the University of Notre Dame granting President Barack Obama an honorary degree ‘the source of the greatest scandal,’ and questioned the Indiana institution’s Catholic identity for honoring a politician who supports legal abortion.”

Bishop Bruskewitz of Nebraska wrote Father Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, about “your absolute indifference to the murderous abortion program and beliefs of this president of the United States.”  He also assured his “prayers for the conversion of your formerly Catholic university."

As a 1943 graduate of Notre Dame, I am also appalled at Rev. Jenkins’ actions in this matter.  In 2006, Father Jenkins wrote me he was “deeply committed to strengthening the Catholic character of Notre Dame.”

Robert W. Degenhart

 

 

Editor:

 

What I find scandalous  regarding the invitation by Notre Dame to President Barack Obama are two letters published in your column last week.

The president is who, and what he is.  When those "Catholics"  voted for him they knew in advance that he was a proponent of abortion on demand, stem cell research, and other issues contrary to church teaching.  He has wasted no time proving it.

The source of the controversy, to be redundant, is the invitation in the first place by a university thought to be Catholic of a man openly against the most basic of rights and Catholic tenets, the right to life.  As an exclamation point, they conferred upon him an honorary degree.

To compare this issue with the early church's dealings regarding circumcision, visions, and invitations from God,  is ludicrous.  Another writer quotes, "Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right."  Does this mean that the church, led by a human being and successor to St. Peter, is in error when he comes out in defense of  the right to life?

The charitable thing to do would have been to forego the invitation to the president knowing that his beliefs, and policies are contrary to church teaching.  This would have avoided the perceived disrespect to his office.

The underlying problem here seems to be that many of our so called Catholic colleges and universities also have beliefs and policies contrary to Church teaching.

Joe Palisi

 

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In the Letter to the Editor, The Catholic Miscellany, May 14, 2009, Deborah T. Gourdin and Bob Kappler made points that would be valid if they were the actual reasons for the protests at the University of Notre Dame.

The fact that is not disputable and the cause of the brouhaha is that Notre Dame is in defiance with the United States Conference Catholic Bishops. Father Jenkins and the trustees of Notre Dame knew full well that the USCCB guidelines stated that Catholic institutions, such as Notre Dame, should not honor those such as President Obama who act in defiance of our holy Roman Catholic Church fundamental moral principles.

 

President Obama should not be given awards, honors or platforms that would suggest support for their actions. TPope Benedict XVI concurred with these guidelines. Notre Dame has attempted to place the university on the same authority level as that of the bishops and the pope.  The have no such right to do so and the university is clearly wrong.

Notre Dame has not helped their students to better understand issues comforting them, in fact, they have done just the opposite. Just as Deborah Gourdin and Bob Kappler misunderstand, so too do the students at Notre Dame.

William L. "Bill" May