On March 10, Bishop Richard Malone addressed the Husson College Business Breakfast. He explained the many challenges facing the Diocese of Portland and how he and his staff are studying and planning to meet them. His comments were wide-ranging and enabled those present to appreciate the difficult decisions facing Maine’s Catholic population in the years ahead.

During his remarks, there was no mention of the civil rights bill recently submitted by the governor.

As with all business breakfast speakers, the bishop agreed to take questions from the floor.

A local minister raised the question of what the position of the diocese would be. He graciously explained that he had, just the day before, received a copy of the legislation from Gov. Baldacci and that he and his staff would study the matter. This question was one of several addressed to him on various matters and was tangential to the principal subject in his talk, i.e. the difficulties facing the church in the years ahead due to the diminishing number of priests.

To read Judy Harrison’s article, “Bishop mulls response to gay rights legislation” (BDN, March 11), you would easily get the idea that the civil rights bill was almost the only topic discussed. Her article consisted of 19 inches and almost 15 inches of it were devoted to the bill and very little attention was paid to the several other matters Malone mentioned. Her column greatly skewed his presentation and gave an erroneous impression of his overall remarks.

Dana C. Devoe

Orono