Sir, - Patsy McGarry described negative aspects of the papacy of Pius IX (The Irish Times, September 2nd). Your readers may be interested in a remark by Father Donal Kerr, former professor of ecclesiastical history in Maynooth, in the Irish Catholic of July 13, 2000: "Pius was a good friend to Ireland. Not only did he organise a collection in Rome for victims of the famine, he issued an encyclical instructing every bishop in the world to pray and collect funds for the Famine victims."
Beatification is an acknowledgment by the Church of personal holiness, which every Christian must strive to attain. It does not require a claim that the person's political or theological judgements were sound in every way. Saints are human and are prone to error. While Pius IX had theological views and took courses of action that we would repudiate today, he was, according to historians, a person of undoubted holiness and goodness. It is this holiness, as well as his devotion to the Church and its teaching. which have resulted in his beatification. - Is mise,
Meadhbh Flynn, Earlsfort Road, Lucan, Co Dublin.