Culture of death

Frans Jozef van Beeck's otherwise sophisticated and nuanced article agrees too readily with Archbishop Raymond Burke's gratuitous claim that "the port of entry for the culture of death in our society has been the abandonment of the respect for the procreative meaning of the conjugal act." This assertion is in no way obvious or self-evident. In my opinion a more obvious claimant to that title would be the all-pervasive and all-powerful capitalistic ideology which creates citizens who are consumers even before they are mature and free persons. This system demands that we consume more so that more can be produced. When we cease to be efficient producers or good consumers we become dispensable. That, in my opinion, is the "port of entry to the culture of death."

DAVID L. SMITH, CSSP

Pittsburgh, Pa.

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