To the Editor:

After all of the letters and Sound Offs regarding my St. Mary’s Church, I feel an obligation to clarify a few items.

Following you will find the regulations for our cemetery: Artificial flowers, glass or plastic flower blocks, ornaments or any kind, vigil lights, glass or crockery jars, or any type of container deemed unsuitable will not be allowed on any plot. If so, they will be removed. No curbing, fencing, hedging or enclosures will be allowed. The use of statues as a memorial or as part of a memorial shall not be allowed.

In fairness to those who did the cleanup and Fr. Venette, most of the items removed were in violation of the cemetery regulations. Most of these items shouldn't have been on the graves in the first place. If the regulations had been followed perhaps there wouldn't be this bitter controversy. This action wasn't done with malice not was a draconian act. I am dismayed to have my church displayed as a mockery.

I can sympathize with the parishioners whose loved ones plots were cleaned off. I am sure it was a shock. We did run the cemetery cleanup in the bulletin for several weeks. However we did not consider those who did not attend mass or went to another parish.

I attended a meeting May 23, held in the church. There was loud ranting, raving and foul language. The meeting was a total fiasco. There were even threats. A parishioner and our pastor were brow-beaten at the meeting.

This problem should have been private within our church. As Christians, we should have been able to work together to reach a feasible solution.

Shirley Christman

Potsdam