ARCHBISHOP ROGER MAHONY

May I express my indignation? Allegedly Bill Kenkelen, West Coast correspondent for the liberal National Catholic Reporter said that Mahony is “a church political animal.” Further: “He was liberal in the ‘60s, when it was profitable to be liberal. And now under this Pope, it’s advantageous to be conservative.”

I do not know who Kenkelen is, but I am sure that he is a not-well-educated Catholic. He should know that there are basic doctrines in the Catholic faith that do not depend on who the Pope is. Another quotation, from Father Thomas Reese, that “bishops are not liberal Democrats--they are coming out of a Christian perspective” is the right judgment in this question.

STEPHEN J. FELSZEGHY, Los Angeles