Is the Church Becoming Less Catholic? As a devout Catholic, I would like to answer several points in Maureen Dowd's May 20 column, "Here Comes Nobody." She objects to the idea that the Catholic Church can deliver an edict and have it go into effect without any debate. But there are some things we cannot argue with if we are to accept that there is any truth in the world. Protestant churches and other religions mold "the truth" to whatever is culturally acceptable at any given time. Ms. Dowd feels the Catholic Church should do the same. But this would make the truth true only as long as people say it's true. And as we can see, people are far from perfect. Therefore, wouldn't this give religious groups that bend the truth the potential to be far less encompassing than the Catholic Church? The Catholic Church isn't hunting down anybody. Anyone who accepts the truth will be welcomed with God's open, loving arms. To amend James Joyce's words, "Here comes Jesus, for everybody." As a former Jesuit, I have a very complicated relationship to the Catholic Church. Maureen Dowd's column assumes that the recent Vatican actions are caused by "uncertainty and panic." She thinks that church leaders are losing their way and unintentionally risking the catholicity (universality) of the Catholic Church. On the contrary, I believe that they are pursuing a very deliberate strategy. They have decided that a smaller, more unified and fervently doctrinally focused church community is preferable to a welcoming, diverse and unruly one. All of their actions are consistent with this strategy. I mourn the loss of the catholic Catholic Church. I am a non-Catholic (and a supporter of a woman's right to choose) who feels that the increasing intrusion of religion into politics is having a dangerously toxic effect on our country. That said, there is more to the Catholic Church's position on abortion than Maureen Dowd cares to acknowledge. The church views abortion as the murder of innocents and thus as an absolute evil, so "absolute intolerance" is not an inappropriate response. Mario M. Cuomo wrestled with the complex implications of this as much as anyone else and probably more than John F. Kennedy ever did. At some point, "crazy popes" notwithstanding, the church is entitled to say to its members that there are certain core beliefs that make Catholics Catholic. The church just has to be willing to accept the consequences for that determination. Maureen Dowd writes, "Absolute intolerance is always a sign of uncertainty and panic." No, it isn't; sometimes it's a sign of conviction and the courage to speak out against what it considers to be wrong. Rev. The writer is a pastor in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.