Stephen Sears’ premise in “Got to keep them separated” (Northeastern News, August 6) that “the Vatican has every right to issue edicts on their position regarding any issue, but they have no right, nor any amount of authority, to tell Catholic politicians how to vote” is at best vacuous and at worst self-refuting. The substance of the difficulties with Sears’ premise revolves around the use of the word “authority.” The context of the sentence allows two basic meanings of “authority.” It could mean the power to determine an issue and henceforth enforce compliance. In that case it should be painfully obvious that the Vatican does not have this authority in any amount. Having this power would entail capabilities such as being able to remove politicians from office and would thus undermine the democratic system. Authority could also mean an accepted source of information or advice due to established credibility. This in short reduces Sears’ premise to “The Vatican has the right to communicate their stance on an issue, but they do not have the right to communicate their stance on an issue.” If the Vatican does not have authority in this sense, then neither does any other individual or group have the right to lobby politicians in the United States of America.

Derek Ploor The University of Texas at Austin graduate student Computational and Applied Mathematics