We are hearing the voice of young people — the students who have experienced school shootings — because not only their dignity but their very lives are in jeopardy. It is the adults, especially those in the church, whose voices are muted and muffled.

We are all God’s children. God hears the cry of the children and their parents. Do we? It is time to listen, stand up and speak out.

John Kingery

This dictate has taken our God of abundance, who fed the crowds with five loaves and two fish so they wouldn’t go away hungry, to a God of scarcity.

In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo commemorates the successful ousting of the French incursion, a struggle for independence, a defeat of the European powers and a reversal of the conquest of Mexico. 

It is totally beyond my comprehension that the Catholics of Oregon have not overwhelmingly deluged their state’s legislature with enough signatures to place their new pro-abortion law on the ballot to be rescinded. Where is their common sense?

Jesus was very clear about the use of weapons whose sole purpose is to strike or to kill: “Stop, no more of this!” (Lk 22:51)

Regarding “Overruling the Klan,” March 2, page 1:

This story described the intensity of the debate on the school closing initiative aimed at ending parochial schools in Oregon, but it had three important errors.

I was at Mass at St. Mary in Eugene with my husband, John; he had a tough year with lots of medical problems. As usual, we sat in the back because of John’s big wheelchair.

A thin young black man came and sat in my pew. He looked like a foreign college student who perhaps missed the campus Newman Center Mass.

If Sunday Mass has become “the same old same old” for your adolescent children, why not expose them to something different, namely the Maronite liturgy at St. Sharbel Church in Southeast Portland  and/or the 11 a.m. high Mass at Holy Rosary?

It failed to identify those supposed conservatives who actually advocate that the end justifies the means.

All humans are created by God. All humans have souls created by God. God controls this area 100 percent, not man.

Because of your newspaper’s office to teach and educate Catholics, you have a responsibility to present clear, authentic Catholic teaching to avoid harm to the souls of your readers.

My heart and prayers go out to Archbishop Sample for the loss of his wonderful mother. His faith and commitment to the Fourth Commandment is awesome.

I was at a wedding at Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Lake Oswego last month. I picked up a copy of the Catholic Sentinel. You folks put out a great Catholic newspaper.

Unfortunately, these descriptors have been hijacked by a significant number of people who believe the end justifies the means and have clearly demonstrated they will accept sinful behavior by people willing to advance their agenda.

Concerning Judas Iscariot and eternal life, it seems there is more leeway/interpretation in the rules of mortal sin and damnation than when I grew up 60 years ago. Back then, eating meat on Friday was a sin.

Regarding the comment that people who commit suicide may not have full responsibility, doesn’t this apply to most, if not all, suicides? How many people say to themselves, “I am going to kill myself primarily because I want to offend God and know by such action I will be so offending him and am fully consenting to this serious action”? — the three qualifications in the Baltimore Catechism.

How many poor souls are still in purgatory because people just assume they’re in heaven?

The reformed federal tax plan would be a boon – not a disaster – for low-income Catholic students.

The main reason is something De La Salle North Cathlic officials and the Sentinel omitted: the reform would double the basic family deduction to $24,000 from $12,000.

What about this face is new? I’ll stick to what I’ve been doing — trying to decrease my family’s contribution to pollution, teaching my kids about proper stewardship of the Earth and her resources, and encouraging others to do the same.

As time and days are getting shorter in the light of life.

Some of the views expressed in the Sentinel on capital punishment have me concerned. From Catholic school and the Bible study, I was taught that the death penalty is not only or primarily about protecting innocent life but about justice for the victim and society.

The purpose of prayer is not to change God’s mind, but to let God’s mind change our life. Jesus taught us the perfect prayer: “Our Father, …your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

When I went to a Catholic high school I was required to wear a uniform. This made all of us, rich or poor, look pretty much the same.

The assertion that Tillamook’s early settlers were predominantly Swiss is incorrect.

We are especially indebted to the Catholic Sentinel for articles written by managing editor Ed Langlois and reporter Katie Scott who, relating with receptive hearts, understanding minds and responsive will, covered the curse of sexual child abuse by erring clergy who brought shame and ruin to the church, especially the faithful clergy who, ever after, suffered from their brothers’ sins.

You captured the hectic, but rewarding, positions they hold.

We as American, lay, priests, religious — all are obliged to stop, to think, to speak out against this unacceptable manifestation, this cruel manipulation.