Take a hard look

In response to Sen. Rick Santorum's scurrilous remarks blaming the people of Boston for creating an atmosphere that led to the sexual abuse scandal among its Catholic clergy, I would remind him that it is difficult to find an institution more conservative than the Catholic church.

Sen. Santorum would do well to look to the church's and his own repressive philosophy to account for the sexual improprieties performed by Catholic clergy. Rather than gazing dreamily toward Boston, he might do better to take a hard look at the Vatican hierarchy, which clings slavishly to the idea of celibacy for its all-male priesthood -- and then into his own dark heart.

T. S. FRANK
Brighton Heights

"Santorum and Sin" (July 18 editorial) is a despicable character assassination filled with malicious ridicule without giving any strong reasons why Sen. Rick Santorum is wrong.

One of the points of Sen. Santorum's 2002 article and his new book is that liberalism seeks to minimize the influence of religion and traditional values in our culture and then wonders why we have so many social problems in our society.

But those of us who are not liberal know that religion and tradition are the collective wisdom of our predecessors. Instead of building on this wisdom, liberals arrogantly want to throw it all out and start over. That is precisely why there is so much ailing our society today.

It is the Post-Gazette's right to disagree with Sen. Santorum, but it is the PG's responsibility to give a logical refutation instead of resorting to unnecessary ridicule. How can it refer to Sen. Santorum, who is a responsible family man and an articulate, hard-working public servant, as an embarrassment while being more tolerant of real embarrassments like Sen. Ted Kennedy and his conduct in the Mary Jo Kopechne death and Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky affair? It seems like the PG has a double standard.

Since Sen. Santorum's position is held by the majority of Americans, one can only conclude that the PG's intemperate editorial is part of a chilling, coordinated, nationwide attack to besmirch the good record of the senator in order to silence him and thus deny him freedom of speech.

DAVE MAJERNIK
Plum

Sen. Santorum's comments on Boston were so indefensible that one of his local supporters, Molly Hoover, could only resort to character attacks on Santorum's critics in the July 19 letter "No Position to Blame." Ms. Hoover says Sen. Ted Kennedy is hypocritical in criticizing Sen. Santorum for his Boston slander -- because of what happened in Chappaquiddick in 1969.

Sen. Kennedy's conduct that night has serious implications and surely bore a tragic, fatal result. But unless he is criticizing Sen. Santorum for reckless endangerment or alcohol abuse, it is difficult for me to see how Sen. Kennedy's righteously defending his state is hypocrisy.

ADAM ATKINSON
Arnold