Heart, not mind, matters most

by Letters Editor · July 8, 2009

For some years now I have felt that the Catholic Church places greater emphasis on matters of the mind rather than the heart.

These days, when there is so much and such terrible suffering, surely it is better to spend one�s time and effort trying to help the helpless rather than trying to prove points which don�t really need discussion.

The recent upset for many has been the introduction of new wording for the Mass. For those of us who started out our lives learning the responses in Latin, then in English, then having them altered occasionally over the years, it seems pointless getting agitated over the most recent change. We know God understands our prayers, even if we don�t.

Some of us old fogies can be forgiven, I hope, for being a bit put out by changes. Our eyesight may be dim and our hearing rather poor. Our minds tend to flip back to the past and to forget the present.

As one old man I know said: �There are too many priests with not enough to do except play around with words!�

A real and terrible indication of heartlessness seemed to me to be in your report of a little girl pregnant after being raped by her father, and having an abortion. Her mother and the doctor who performed the operation were� both excommunicated.

Abortion is wrong, but surely that operation saved the little girl�s life. Letting the pregnancy run to maturity could well have destroyed her babies and the girl. I�m surprised there�s not been a greater response to that report.

P Auret, Thornville, KwaZulu-Natal