D&C Letter to the Editor: Children Are More Valuable than Organ

The Democrat and Chronicle carries this letter to the editor, responding to columnist Mark Hare's feature on helping assemble the new $1.5 million pipe organ at Sacred Heart Cathedral.

I'm so glad Mark Hare had a grand old time carrying pieces of Sacred Heart Cathedral's new $1.5 million organ into the church (column, June 12). Some of us don't share his enthusiasm for this instrument. We've been comforting children and trying to make sure the last two weeks in their Catholic school are memorable. We've been working on special gifts for the teachers to try and convey just how much they are valued. We've been planning for the future of our parish and its programs.

Hare muses, "sounds will comfort ... for decades to come." Who will be touched in this way? Children who will no longer be educated in the Catholic tradition? Teachers who were shown the door? Parents who worked tirelessly to support their schools and to pay tuition? No, Mr. Hare, this Catholic will just hear sadness that in this diocese one of God's greatest gifts, our children, is less important than that instrument you carried.

—MICHELE BEGEMANN, GREECE