Cardinal Mahony

As a Catholic, I enjoyed the two-part series (June 14-15) on Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, paying tribute as it did to his administrative skills, personal prayer life, fondness for his cat and mountain cabin, etc. But I wonder why it didn’t occur to the cardinal to mention what plans he has, at the parish level, of reintroducing Christianity into the archdiocese. For the Sacraments apart, a visit to the average parish church can all too often be a form of penance, revealing a wholesale surrender to third-rate pop psychology, superstitious enthusiasm for guided tours to non-authenticated places of Marian apparition and “charismatic” services that are both aesthetic and intellectual disasters.

Mahony’s favored secular reading material is allegedly a Tom Clancy novel. I submit that the church of Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy begs for some serious shepherding.

STANLEY NEMETH

Gardena