DR Stuart (April 21) perhaps overlooks that when certain Pharisees and scribes asked why Jesus ate and drank "with tax collectors and sinners" he replied: "It is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the virtuous but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:3011). Those critics themselves were doubtless in need of repentance in view of their selfrighteousness; but pride spurns the offer of healing. The humble are more responsive.
The lines UN caritas et amor etc. refer to the love that is "poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Rom 5:5). Not every kind of love is holy, even if it involves a deep attachment where restraint could be a sort of martyrdom.
Preston Charles Praeger SJ DR Elizabeth Stuart (April 21) writes that the Catholic Church's treatment of homosexuals amounts to nothing less than a betrayal of the Gospel. She then pulls the carpet out from under her own feet by completely misrepresenting the Gospel that the Church is supposed to have betrayed.
It is true that Jesus sought out the company of social outcasts, people rejected as sinners. It is also true that He didn't call them handicapped. He called them sick, a much stronger word. "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5 : 31-32).
A.G. Williams Cheltenham