Long ago I decided to stop reading Donnie Johnston's columns because of his bombastic, uneducated, and often offensive angles to most things he drones on about.

It's the type of stuff you might hear in a barber shop: people spouting off, wanting the entire shop to hear their opinions with little or no thought about the words coming out of their mouths. In those cases, you want the barber to take twice the time to cut around your ears with the electric clippers so you don't have to hear their pontifications.

Ah, yes, the pontiff: That's what Johnston's article was about ["Pope knows that a job for life doesn't have to be until death" Feb. 22].

I will not read a Donnie Johnston column again. What a waste of paper and ink. He used his Free Lance-Star platform to make fun of the papal office and Catholics, which contributes to misunderstandings other Christian denominations have about the Catholic Church.

Is the Fredericksburg region so devoid of authentic Catholics that you could not have an article about the pope's retirement to truthfully educate your reading audience? Maybe you could get permission from the Arlington Catholic Herald to reprint its articles.

Richard Stryker

Spotsylvania