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VATICAN CITY – The most important figure in the fall of the Berlin Wall was former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who allowed the revival of political freedom throughout Eastern Europe, a former papal aide said.

For 25 years, Monsignor Robert Armstrong has called the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen home. He’s been connected to the church for much longer than that – for its full half-century. He sang in the choir for the dedication Mass in November 1959, was ordained to the priesthood in the cathedral and a quarter-century ago became its rector. But the cathedral is not his church alone.

In Question Corner (CR, Oct. 29), Father John Dietzen reviews the longstanding (500-year) controversy over predestination, which was mostly a fight between Calvin and Luther, with Catholics hardly involved at all.

CR: What do people need to know that perhaps they do not understand? Monsignor Hartnett: It varies from place to place. I think there are people who are disengaged from the process who believe everything is OK in their school, so nothing is going to happen. I think there are people who are in parishes, who believe, ‘We’re not associated with Catholic schools, and so nothing is going to happen.’ I think there are people who are involved in Catholic schools now who are assuming the worst will happen. What I’m saying is, it’s going to affect everybody in some way. For some people, it’s going to mean we’re going to ask them to step up a little bit. For others, it means we’re going to ask them to be more attentive. For others, it’s going to be asking them to be more open to a different experience, perhaps a new experience. I think people are not thinking that way. They’re thinking, ‘It’s the same old, same old. Some are going to close and some are going to remain open and we’re just going to go on like we always have before.’

George Weigel (CR, Oct. 22) takes the Nobel Committee to task for its prize for peace to Barack Obama by attributing to it the belief that “conflict is born of misunderstanding rather than a clash of interests; thus diplomacy is a therapeutic exercise in which soothing words make for peace.” He couples that with the claim that the committee ignores the value of “structures by which conflict is resolved politically.” Both statements are clearly hyperbole, but they allow Weigel a launching pad for his own beliefs in confronting our enemies.

To needlessly insert (CR, Oct. 15) the words “both Catholic” when referring to Governor Martin O’Malley and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, both well known advocates of abortion, is to profane the meaning of the word Catholic.