DEAR EDITOR: It seems to me that our late Holy Father Pope John Paul II the Great had a great sense of the times he lived in, like the apostle John he had visions, was a mystic and was a travelling evangelist and teacher.

Like Paul, he left many books and letters to his flock, and he made sure to encourage good and admonish evil wherever he saw it.

What a wonderful example he was to any Christian. He knew what Christ's message was and he lived it by example. He translated the question of what would St Paul have done to spread Christ message if he lived in this modern secular world.

In Paul's time he walked, rode and sailed to many lands of the then pagan Roman empire and used the peace that existed - the Pax Romana - to spread God's word. He used the safety of the road to travel and send his letters via his faithful servants to every end of the world. It seems Pope John Paul II did just that and he was even the first Pope to send an e-mail and have a website.

He was modern and progressive for his age and time. What about the rest of us in the Church? Are we about to take his example and travel and visit our members everywhere and send e-mail and video-conference to propagate Christ's teachings?

The Pentecostal evangelists have certainly taken full advantage of every modern secular tool to send out Christ's word. Are we Catholics somewhat laid back as individuals to write each other e-mails of encouragement from church to church, prayer group to prayer group and get closer via video-conferences?

In a world that is getting closer together as a global village are we Catholics taking full advantage of the technologies available for prayer groups and St Vincent de Paul groups etc. to get closer globally?

I have even seen websites from churches in Ghana, West Africa. Do we care to write them and have them write to us, to share our joys and sorrows and advise on how to tackle problems?

Maybe if we formed pen-friendships via e-mail and conference we could be closer as a Church locally and internationally and so bring to pass the late Holy Father's dream of a closer, more united Church.

This would also help root out fear, bigotry and suspicion between groups and nations through the work of the Holy Spirit in our Church.

Andrew Francis, Lady Paul Drive, Diego Martin

DEAR EDITOR: Coming after the Draft National Gender Policy and Action Plan, (DNGP&AP) we have just finished Health Promotion Month and once more ASPIRE is using this and the millennium development goals (MDGs) to stir up the debate on abortion and women's rights.

I was amazed to read in the DNGP&AP that there are now supposed to be five sexes and we have been asked to seriously consider drafting this into law in T&T.

The latest editions of the bible still says in Genesis that God made male and female and dictionaries and medical text books still speak of only two sexes, and I know of no medical school that teaches otherwise. The medical texts speak of genetic abnormalities affecting normal sexuality but there are still only two sexes.

In the midst of all this, a woman went into an abortion clinic in Orlando , Florida , USA last month and asked for an abortion at 22 weeks into her pregnancy.

She was given a chemical abortion which came on quicker than expected so that she aborted a live fetus into a bed-pan. When she saw her live fetus moving about in the bed-pan, she asked the staff in the abortion clinic to resuscitate her fetus but they did not do so and the child died. She has started litigation against them for not resuscitating the fetus.

This case raises some very relevant issues about abortion and human rights. For those who say that the fetus is not a human being, it seems that to them it is not a human being as long as it is born dead or aborted successfully.

If the abortion is unsuccessful and the child is born alive, then it suddenly becomes a human being, so that to them the nature of the fetus changes just by either being alive or dead at birth. What an abominable hypocrisy this is.

Here again the DNGP&AP, the MDG's and ASPIRE are seemingly very interested in social justice and are not concerned about individual justice. They are asking us to love our neighbour but want to make it harder and harder for us to love God and to love the living fetus in the womb.

Abortion is terrorism in the womb.

(Dr) Peter Gentle, Palmiste, San Fernando

DEAR EDITOR: In these days of despair when people say only bad things about Laventille and its people, on Friday, April 22, I saw a programme on Trinity Communication Network that made my heart glad and brought hope to me.

Four young men and three young girls with the programme anchor, Felix Edinborough. These young people can sow their seed and set the area ablaze. Please show them again and again.

Congratulations to you and your parents teachers and parish priest. God bless you all.

Patricia Dougdeen, Valsayn North