love2learn.net

In the story "Bethlehem, 1918" on page 88, there is a troubling sentence: "In Jerusalem, in spite of its overwhelming interest, the Catholic pilgrim is distressed by the discord of jarring creeds, by the crowds of Mohammedans and foreign Jews that infest it..." While we certainly can't judge the author's intentions in referring to people as infesting a place, it certainly seems contradictory to Catholic teaching on the value of each human life, regardless of race or religion. I would be anxious to make clear to my children that it is inappropriate to refer to people as infesting a place. While some may choose to skip the story entirely, I think it can be valuable for children to read such things and discuss them with their parents in order to be better prepared to avoid such errors and evils in the future. (A.V.H.)