World Meeting of Families

Sir, – Archbishop Diarmuid Martin rightfully accepted responsibility "if mistakes were made"over the removal of images of same-sex couples from World Meeting of Families booklets (News, July 20th). Last October the conservative website Life Site News attacked the World Meeting of Families and the Irish bishops for using "Pope Francis's teaching to push homosexuality" and in particular denounced the use "of a picture of two lesbians clinging intimately to one another, with one wearing a tattoo of a gay pride rainbow flag". Within three months, the original pamphlet was withdrawn and shredded and a new sanitised version, with photos of traditional happy families and a revised text, was published. How can Archbishop Martin call this deliberative bowdlerisation of his promotional pamphlet a "mistake"? Surely a decision was taken at the highest level of the World Meeting of Families executive to censor and delete all references to LGBTI families and couples. While we accept the assurance of Archbishop Martin that he personally didn't remove the images of LGBTI families from the newly "revised" pamphlet, the question of who actually authorised and subsequently carried out the bowdlerisation remains unanswered and adds to the mystery. I hope Pope Francis during his visit will solve the mystery for us. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN BUTLER,

Malahide,

Co Dublin.