Catholics must follow the dictates of Rome

As the name implies, Roman Catholics already have a bishop towhom we can look for the resolution of conflicts in faith, morals andliturgy. It is not the archbishop of Chicago.

The ancient saying, "Rome has spoken, the matter is finished,"cannot be revised to, "Rome has spoken, let us have a forum," withoutthereby abandoning our Roman Catholic identity.

If Joseph Cardinal Bernardin wants to promote unity, he can dono better than to point to every Roman decree on the matters at issueand see to it that they are implemented. That would make him a greatChicago bishop, like Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb. Lee Gilbert, Lisle Is the kids' milk money next?

Last year more than $500 billion was spent in the United Stateson legal gambling. That is a lot of money. I keep wondering whereit all comes from. Yes, we know it comes out of the pockets of themany and into the pockets of the few already rich gamblingestablishment owners. But where do all those thousands of gamblersget the $500 billion to gamble?

I wonder if a large share is coming from credit cards, whicheasily access cash through ATM machines at riverboats and othergambling facilities. Credit card debt levels have surged to anaverage of $3,900 per cardholder.

Even lottery tickets can be purchased by telephone creditarrangement. State and local governments seem intent on making iteasy for people to gamble - even to gamble money they don't have. Beth Paschall, Palos Heights Mitchell, Muwakkil: vital voices

Mary Mitchell's Sunday column is right on. I was on the brinkof canceling my subscription to the Sun-Times until her column savedthe day. Mitchell's ethnic topics and style are captivating,enlightening, educational and profound.

Columns like Salim Muwakkil's and Mitchell's are excellentalternatives to the often sugar-coated, biased quasi-journalismnon-Europeans have endured. Keep it coming. Lawrence Smith, West Pullman We take plastic; you pay the fee

I agree that government agencies should accept fees, fines andother charges by credit card. However, I don't think the transactionfee should be included in the amount collected, as suggested in arecent Sun-Times editorial. I think it should be added on.

The Clerks of Court in Illinois are authorized to take creditcards and are required to add on the transaction fee, but Visa andMasterCard have refused to enter into contracts with "add-on." In myoffice alone, I would have to budget about $2.5 million of propertytax money to pay for the convenience of credit card users.

Government agencies are not ordinary retail merchants. We can'tinflate prices to cover the transaction fees. Our fees are set bystatute or rule.

It would be fairer to add the transaction costs to the amountpaid by the user for the convenience. Aurelia Pucinski, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County An explosive fashion statement

I found the recent news story about "lowrider" automobiles veryinformative. Particularly intriguing was one lowrider owner whosecar is "so low to the ground that steel plates scrape the street,spraying a shower of sparks."

One can visualize this resulting in several unnecessaryscenarios: further damaging streets already riddled with potholes;or, worse yet, much greater sparks emanating from a gas tankexplosion.

Now, wouldn't that look cool? Tim Shockley, Hermosa