Pope and U.S. Catholics

I have been avidly following your coverage of the recent talks of American Catholic bishops with the Pope and the Roman Curia. In it I seemed to gather that the focus of it all was supposed to be the evangelization of the average man or woman in the U.S.

However, it seems to be that Rome’s attack on American Catholics as being pickers and choosers, if pursued with any intensity or vigor, could well bring instead the de-evangelization of our church here.

For the people they are addressing are the already declining congregations that are still alive. I wouldn’t be surprised that the vast number of baptized Catholics in this country haven’t the foggiest interest in all of this.

So it seems to me what the official church is doing is closing the vise even tighter on the only ones who have made any kind of a real commitment to the faith.

I sometimes wonder why the thoughts and actions of spirit-filled Catholics are so easily considered suspect. Sometimes it looks to me like everything is coming from the top down and not vice versa.

EDWIN P. SCANLAN

Ojai