NO AUTHORITY
I just read the article about Bishop Thomas Paprocki's defense of the Ugandan government's position on homosexuality ("Bishop Paprocki defends Ugandan government," June 22). This article comes on the heels of the Illinois Attorney General's report on sexual abuse in the church. I am a lifelong Catholic, but when it comes to moral authority, Bishop Paprocki is going to be one of the last people I'll look to. Mary K. Cronin
Springfield
EMBARRASSING
Bishop Thomas Paprocki has scored a hat trick in his recent Catholic Times column about Uganda criminalizing homosexuality. He called President Joe Biden a white racist for criticizing the actions of an African nation and because Pope Francis also opposes the criminalization of homosexuality, Paprocki subtly slipped a knife in his back.
Paprocki's attacks are succeeding in driving a large number of young people and progressive people away from the Catholic church. It is hard enough to get young people to go to church without adding a local leader promoting the idea that it is valid to criminalize the God-given attributes of their friends and relatives.
His third goal is to return the church to the glory days prior to Vatican II. I think he confuses correlation with causation. The decline in attendance isn't because of the attempts to modernize the church, but because of changes in society, and significantly, because of the atrocious actions of some priests of the church and the lack of response by the hierarchy.
I pray this is the last time Paprocki embarrasses the church.
Ron Davis
Lincoln
BE PROFESSIONAL
Am I reading this correctly ("Civil disagreement," June 22)? It never occurred to some of the people elected to these positions that they should act in a professional manner, until asked to sign a piece of paper? Maybe if they have a habit of acting like explosive toddlers they shouldn't keep getting reelected. Then there's plenty of time for introspection.
DeAnn Richard
Via Facebook.com/illinoistimes
A CUDGEL
A civility pledge is a cudgel to be used against people and opinions that the self-proclaimed civility police don't like. U.S. political and economic systems are great examples of how to do violence with civility.
Chris Miller
Via Facebook.com/illinoistimes
PASSION
Somebody's passion for an issue might be interpreted as incivility by somebody else.
Marie Carnes
Via Facebook.com/illinoistimes
SOMEONE PAYS
Have any of these progressive, liberal politicians or entities proposed a logical solution to making health care for undocumented immigrants work ("Governor tries to cap health care costs for immigrants," June 29)? Budgeting comes down to matching a liability against a revenue stream, and if you can't make the ends meet, then you simply cannot do it. By doing so, you'd be further leveraging your documented and taxpaying residents. It's almost as if they believe by getting something passed in a budget, the problem is solved. Somebody has to pay that bill, and unfortunately, it ends up being the documented taxpayers of Illinois.
Arthur Dunkin
