Having read several recent letters to the editor in the Sun Journal and other publications about the planned demolition of St. Joseph’s Church in Lewiston, I, also, was stunned, outraged and horrified about such cultural insensitivity and disregard for the city’s historical and civilizational heritage.

The churches and other historical buildings are the soul and heart of this great city of Lewiston, witnesses to the immigrant story, the patriotism, dedication, sacrifices, creativity and hard work of the great Americans who came before us and made it all possible.

The first thing the Russian Bolsheviks, Stalinists and totalitarians did was to tear down the churches or convert them into horse stables or worse. They erected entirely new cities and towns without any architectural reminder of the rich and great Russian past — soulless and sterile “communities.”

A city cannot exist as a living community with only office buildings, tenements, factories, strip malls and parking lots.

One need only make a tour through European countries with their marvelous cathedrals, churches, synagogues and other historical buildings to get a sense of the great Western Judeo-Christian civilization and heritage.

To erase all that in Lewiston-Auburn and this great country and replace it with parking lots and other utilitarian structures amounts to nothing less than cultural barbarism.

One does not need to agree with Pat Buchanan on many of his views, but he is certainly right when he talks about the “suicide of the West.”

Klaus Kuck, Lewiston