Leading Cardinal Calls for More Debate

Re “Cardinal Faults Vatican for Lack of Free Speech,” May 24: I am hopeful that Cardinal Godfried Danneels will be the first of many within the Roman Catholic Church to spearhead the Vatican’s much-needed reform. As a product of 13 years of parochial schooling, your article gave me hope.

Every day I am reminded of the monstrous challenges of people in this world. Don’t the church’s leaders know that many in sub-Saharan Africa are dying of a disease called AIDS? Don’t they know that the world is faced with overpopulation and, given the church’s huge following, that they act almost negligently by not advocating birth control?

I’ve heard the Catholic Church has plenty of money. Why doesn’t it buy all that medicine for Africa? Doesn’t the Vatican have any idea of what Christ really stood for? I wonder, as I look at how the church judges and alienates homosexuals and victims of divorce. The Catholic Church claims to be the world representative of Jesus Christ, yet it continues to turn its back on so many.

I am hopeful Cardinal Danneels will, with the help of others like himself, be able to transform the aging Vatican into a church that really knows how to be like Christ, accepting of everyone. Danneels and his cohorts will need to look fearlessly at the needs of this planet and, in a Christ-like way, lead the people into the future, a future fit for our children.

Andrea McNeill

Woodland Hills