Sir, - Your Religious Affairs Correspondent, Mr Patsy McGarry, appears to be consistently irritated with the Catholic Hierarchy because it failed to respond adequately to wrongdoings by a small number of priests and religious.
Mr McGarry's irritation indicates his lack of knowledge and understanding of large organisations and how they function.
The current financial and political scandals necessitated the establishment of the DIRT Inquiry and the Flood and Moriarty tribunals because senior managements within individual banks, and senior officers of political parties, failed to acknowledge wrongdoing and admit their responsibility.
Indeed, some very senior managers in the commercial banks, appearing before the Public Accounts Committee, were smug in their denial of wrongdoing and arrogant when challenged on their roles in the scams.
If, according to Mr McGarry, "there has been explicit tardiness in the [Bishops'] willingness to address complaints openly and honestly" (The Irish Times, June 8th), can we be sure, for example, that the Church of Ireland or The Irish Times itself would react differently to internal turbulence caused by some of their members or employees? - Yours, etc.,
CIARÁN COLEMAN,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.