Sir, – In response to Ray Leonard (Letters, March 28th), it is hard to dispute that the Catholic church gave a destructive message on human sexuality, causing both oppression and repression.
However, as a member of that beleaguered minority group, ie practising Catholics, I take exception to laying all the sexual woes of Irish society at the door of the Catholic church.
When it comes to punitive attitudes to sexuality, there are other denominations, both Christian and non-Christian, that would leave the Catholic Church in the halfpenny place. – Yours, etc,
MARGARET LEE,
Matt Williams: Take a deep breath and see how Sam Prendergast copes with big Fiji test
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‘I could have gone to California. At this rate, I probably would have raised about half a billion dollars’
Newport,
Co Tipperary.
A chara, – In a letter about the Kerry babies case, Ray Leonard wrote: “the fact that it was the teachings of your own Catholic] church that gave rise to the environment in which children out of wedlock, and their mothers, were social pariahs”.
This fails to recognise that there are factors other than the Catholic Church which influenced “the environment”.
The first Magdalene home in Ireland was founded by Lady Arabella Denny in Leeson Street, Dublin in 1767. It was for Protestant women only.
In the 20th century, many European states had laws for the compulsory sterilisation of women who were considered “feeble-minded” or were in some way “deviant”.
Winston Churchill favoured such legislation for the UK, but did not succeed.
The final report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission in 2021 says (9:45): “In 1968 a total of 27 US states had compulsory sterilisation laws.” The same paragraph also says: “The Commission has received one allegation of eugenical practice but it has no reason to believe that it was ever practised in Ireland not least because the concept was at variance with the teachings of the Catholic church.”
To charge the Catholic Church with being the one and only cause of discrimination against women is to disregard the social environment of the times.
It is also to disregard the contribution made by Catholic organisations to the education of girls and women even before the lifting of the Penal Laws in 1829, and in later times when the State, before and after independence, did not provide such services. – Is mise,
PÁDRAIG McCARTHY,
Sandyford,
Dublin 16.