Re “Noted abbey sculptor dies at age 98,” B.C. Catholic, Jan. 2:
Father Dunstan Massey made a great impression on me as a teenager in the seminary and later during four years in the monastery.
One memory of him as my religion teacher was how to hold one’s hands properly at chest level with the right thumb crossing the left when serving during Mass, and also how to walk slowly and reverently. The liturgy was very important to him and he tried to instill that love in his students.
While in the monastery I did get to work under his direction on several of his sculptures, but I did not fully appreciate the experience at the time. Father Dunstan’s artistic ability impressed me, but I only came to better understand the level of his ability years later. He never gave me the impression he was seeking attention or special treatment as a great artist. I believe he acknowledged his talent was a gift from God to be used in God’s service, which he obviously did.
I also have great memories of his laughter while interacting with the other monks during recreation when the community would get together after lunch and before returning to the various tasks which occupied the working hours of a monk’s day at Westminster Abbey.
Great memories of a good man persevering in his vocation. May God grant him eternal rest.
Geoff Moeller
Airdrie, Alta.
Re Father Hawkswell’s Jan. 25 article “Proclaim the truth by word and example”:
Jesus said, “Let your yes be yes, and your no be no. Anything else comes from the devil.”
So keep writing that 2 plus 2 equals 4, and not going on to explain why it’s not 5, 6, etc.
Tom Do
Vancouver
Expanding assisted suicide to those with mental illness encourages stigmatization and a culture of neglect for those who are suffering. It teaches us to support our family members and friends in their wish to die rather than encouraging us to serve them in life-affirming ways. Offering assisted suicide as a cure reduces incentives to invest in and improve mental-health treatments.
In a country that already struggles to offer adequate mental health care, medically assisted death for the mentally ill is a step backwards.
Dean Clark
Langley
Thank you for your moving coverage of Pope Benedict XVI. I returned to the Catholic Church about 1992. I had knowledge of Cardinal Ratzinger at that time and was thankful for his orthodoxy and his defence of the Catholic Church. He tried to be a warrior at that time. I was pleased when he was elected Pope and so saddened when he resigned.
I believe his prayers will linger with us and for us forever, but I am so disheartened by the defection of many hierarchy and the dissolution of truth that they seem to be attempting.
May God be with us in his Holy Church and I pray that we can withstand the temptation to allow flattering soft words to sway us to a faction trying to sabotage and hijack the truth.
Kim Donnelly
Errington, B.C.
Thank you for featuring the important diaconal work of Marty Cayer (“Faith and the force, Jan. 16).
As vocational deacons we are called to diverse ministries in our communities. As an Anglican deacon in the parish of St. Aidan and St. Bartholomew in Gibsons I have the privilege of working here on the Sunshine Coast with Roman Catholic Deacon Kenan MacKenzie who works out of St. Mary’s, Gibsons, and Holy Family, Sechelt.
We are both blessed by the opportunities our vocational calling gives us to minister in the name of Jesus in the community.
Deacon Steve Bailey
Gibsons
