Readers Write (Nov. 13): The Catholic Church and the convent, pipeline protests and legacies, football and patriotism

The religious sisters near St. Cloud whom Lynda McDonnell visited ("The sisterhood, still marginalized," Nov. 6) are my friends and mentors. I attend their services, but I chafe at the HeHimHis God-talk the Vatican forces these admirable women and all Catholics to use in liturgies.

Pope Francis displays refreshing humility and determination to right wrongs, but his rhetoric about "women's role" and a "theology of women" betrayed his clouded vision before he closed the door to women's ordination. I'm sure it derives from his lifetime of training in praying to "the Lord." Never praying to Her and begging for mercy from Him does severe emotional damage. It insidiously conditions people to accept male as dominant, female as subordinate. Francis and others who assume there's nothing wrong with praying exclusively to "the Lord" are the most damaged by it.

To achieve the shift in consciousness needed, some of us Catholics support Catholic women priests and avoid gendered God-talk. I also introduce feminine images of divinity to provoke the realization that Father and Son are not facts; She and He are images of the spiritual source that created gender.

The pope's closing the door to women's ordination seems connected to Donald Trump's win. We need to educate pope and president about sexist God-talk and sexist relationships.

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Let's not turn off the convent lights just yet. McDonnell suggests that Catholic religious sisters are a dying breed. I disagree. Young women, despite all of the life choices available to them, are still being called to the convent. As Kathleen Sprows Cummings stated in the December 2015 report "Understanding U.S. Catholic Sisters Today," "The most encouraging conclusion drawn from recent studies of U.S. Catholic sisters is that excessive pessimism is unwarranted. Many U.S. Catholic women are still drawn to religious life. There are approximately 1,200 women in formation at the present time, a number that includes 150 women in contemplative monasteries and roughly 1,050 women preparing to be sisters." You may find some of these young women in orders such as the Handmaids of the Heart of Jesus in New Ulm, Minn., the Sisters of Life in New York City, or the convent where my daughter is a member, the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, in Nashville. Check out their websites, and you will see women of all ages answering God's call to prayer and service.

The Nov. 6 editorial "Forge a peaceful end to pipeline protests" takes an interesting angle, which is that North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple should do so to protect his legacy. Not that he should do so for the good of all people who want to drink clean water. Not that he should care about climate change and the life of his grandchildren. Not that it is time to end our taking from Native Americans. Not that he should respectfully, peacefully engage fellow humans. No, Dalrymple should do so to burnish his legacy.

I just returned from Standing Rock, where I was overwhelmed with the prayerful, welcoming, generous spirit of all who were there. I urge the Star Tribune to send a reporter to see firsthand. Yes, it's true, continued demand for oil will ensure that oil finds a way to market. But what you might glimpse is Joanna Macy's "Great Turning." Then, instead of advising Gov. Dalrymple to polish his legacy, maybe you'll call for a carbon fee and dividend to reduce our gluttony for oil and for things. Because more than Dalrymple's legacy, many, many of us are concerned about the water, the Earth, and our grandchildren, our legacy.

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The adage recalled is the description of an "expert" being any person carrying a briefcase and more than 25 miles from home.

The opposite, however, might be true in observing the Star Tribune Editorial Board's assessment of the pipeline situation in North Dakota as evidenced in its Nov. 6 editorial.

The Star Tribune and its briefcase are more than a few hundred miles from Cannonball, N.D., yet the Editorial Board feels compelled to write without having firsthand knowledge of the situation. ("The chaotic images from the scene were shocking" leaves one to believe the editorial writer received the information from a television set).

Said editorial begins with its assessment of North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple as "the scion of a wealthy wheat-farming family," then delves into a diatribe regarding Dalrymple's need to establish a "legacy." Perhaps that description of Dalrymple was thrown in to impress readers of the vast North Dakota political knowledge of the Editorial Board. It added absolutely nothing to the value of the editorial — only a distraction.

Unlike in Minnesota, where newspapers and governors have apparently been obsessed with the legacies they leave, as a recent North Dakota expatriate I submit that no North Dakota governor in my long life there — which included Gov. Bill Guy, Art Link, Allen I. Olson, Bud Sinner, Ed Schafer, John Hoeven and Dalrymple — ever endeavored to establish a legacy. They were down-to-earth, levelheaded dedicated leaders. For the Editorial Board to lobby for a Dalrymple legacy is certainly representative of its elitist element.

One last amplification: Adding the idea, in the editorial, that the standoff at Cannonball would be ended by "North Dakota's inevitable brutal winter" would leave the uninformed to believe a North Dakota winter is somehow more severe than winter in Minnesota — or anywhere.

Give us a break: You keep the voluminous Jesse Ventura, the oppressively somber Mark Dayton and the comedian Al Franken and their legacies — and give thought to staying home. Or, at the very least, visit the site of your external cause before writing about it.

I really liked Lee Schafer's Nov. 6 column "Concern on the rise for our NFL investment." I've been making similar points, and more, and would like to expand upon them.

NFL viewership is down this year, and we all know why. I think it's hilarious that Commissioner Roger Goodell sent out taking points to all the broadcast teams to say it had nothing to do with the "Supreme Idiot" not standing for the national anthem. I refer to Colin Kaepernick, who said racial problems in this country haven't improved in his lifetime. Does this dolt even know who the president is?

Studies have now shown that fans are turning away from football millionaires who won't support the national anthem, but the audiences for Major League Baseball games, where players line up on the first and third baselines, hat on heart, is soaring? Coincidence?

All I'm saying, as a lifetime fan who just bought a Viking battle ax to replace Ragnar, is that if one Viking ever sits for the national anthem, I'm done.

Back to the stadium: With all the concussion talk, fewer kids are playing football. Twenty years from now, the Vikings will be drawing less than the Lynx, and we'll still be paying off their palace.