Merry Christmas to all, and to all a happy New Year! This is our latest Fall/Winter issue to date, but it seemed like the obstacles and interruptions were never-ending, and there was always something else that needed to be done. Hopefully you will have a little time over the holidays to kick back in a comfy chair with your beverage of choice and enjoy!
Altar and Hearth Magazine 
Will you do articles for those Catholic women who have chosen celibacy? These mags seem far too focused on marriage, as if that is the be all and end all for Catholics. It’s pretty lopsided and off putting. Far too much “Hearth” and far too little “Altar”.
I know Ms Eldracher is a Sedevacantist, so why is this not made plain, how can she endorse statements such as “go to your Bishop for dispensation” when Sedes don’t have Bishops who rule territories or the general Novus Ordoey laxity on Mixed Marriages in this issue? I find that very disturbing and kind of disingenuous, like you are aiming at “Trads” no matter that they happen to be deceived by a false religion that calls itself Catholic, WITHOUT trying to undecieve them.
Also, why does only the man have to have a “Letter of Freedom”? Are women not capable of being married/engaged and lieing about it?
Otherwise, some very good, very interesting articles.
Eventually we would like to do some articles on religious life, but we would need the cooperation of a traditional religious order and pictures from the interior of a convent, so the material is more difficult to obtain. The majority of people end up getting married, so we have more articles on that topic. A few issues back we had a piece on maiden aunts, so we haven’t been completely avoiding the topic of celibacy. The “altar” in the title has more to do with religion in a general sense than with vocations.
Altar & Hearth is also not a theological magazine but a lifestyle magazine, as is clearly stated on our website. Theological topics need the oversight of a priest at bare minimum, whereas a Catholic lifestyle magazine has a much broader focus and avoids polemical issues aside from modesty in dress. If we do include theological content we limit it to material with imprimaturs from before Vatican II so that no one needs to argue about it.
The book “Cana is Forever” is a reprint from the 1950s, as is stated in every issue. People can draw the necessary conclusions based on that information. Obviously in the case of the “Letter of Freedom,” the woman’s past would have been examined as well. Not sure why the disparity, but probably it was because men tended to move around the country more than women did in those days, and women generally marry from their home parish where all their records are readily available.
Living celibate in the world is an option and the best lifestyle. You could have articles about that if you don’thave help from an order. Very few people can go to a “traditional order” these days and they need guidance on living outside of any contact with priests etc. Marriage (a vocation…) is talked/obsessed about way too often in “traditional ” circles. It gives the impression that you do not agree that Celibacy is the higher and preferred calling, whether in a convent or not.
Family life from the children and sibling view would also be good ideas for articles. The over emphasis on marriage makes the writers and readers of this look DESPERATE, lowers respect for Catholic women and makes it look like they are forcing a vocational choice which they might not be called to.
You did not answer my comment about your editor being a Sedevacantist and how knowledge of that makes this operation look deceptive and manipulative.
You DO have contacts with priests so why can they not help? If you are not publishing theological matters, then you are publishing your own opinions, which is very dangerous…surely you could uses quotes from Saints and Scripture instead? And most assume that a book with an Imprimatur before Vat 2 has good advice, if it doesn’t, why use it? Or why not tell people, this is no longer the situation in the world, you CANT go to Bishops as none with jurisdiction exist, and Mixed Marriage is 99% not allowed?