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On April 24, I again witnessed the power of God within the 22, 263 days or so I have been alive on earth. I served at the confirmation service at St. Bernardine Church. I was in awe because the church was packed and we had 28 people, young and old, who were to be confirmed by Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien. The readings for the weekend were powerful and challenging, not only for those to be confirmed, but to everyone in attendance.

When the Verizon technician came to service my Internet connection, he asked about the books on the Bible around the computer. I explained: “I teach the Middle Eastern culture and values that a reader should know in order to read and interpret that Middle Eastern book intelligently and respectfully. It was written about Middle Easterners by Middle Easterners.”

This has been set aside by Pope Benedict XVI as the Year for Priests; we also give special appreciation for priests on the first Sunday of June.

At a time when the Vatican is criticized for failing to provide moral leadership in regard to sex abuse by priests and administrative failure of bishops to properly supervise offenders, I’d like to praise its moral leadership regarding nuclear weaponry disarmament, almost from the dawn of the nuclear age.<

An article on the new Arizona immigration law (CR, April 29) stated that it makes it a crime to be here illegally, whereas “Federal law treats that as a civil violation.”

Why is The Catholic Review (April 29) sponsoring the political action of a gun buy-back and claiming tax-exempt status for that action? From the other article on that page, your peers in the regional media rewarded you with two first prizes for what is an immaterial effort, based on the numbers and timeline cited in your article. I do not accept the premise of your opening paragraph that you are stemming “gun violence in the city.”