PHILIP DAVIS,
Sir, - While the Catholic Church contemplates its conduct in respect of the abuse of children, it would do well also to address clerical abuse of the elderly. For many years representatives of the church have unashamedly accepted excessive bequests from those nearing the end of their days. Through fear and manipulation, individual priests have accumulated significant personal wealth, and the Church authorities would do well to deal with this issue before it explodes in their faces.
The Church will be brought to its knees for its sins, and while there, it should pray for forgiveness. - Yours, etc.,
PHILIP DAVIS,
Laragh,
Co Wicklow.
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Sir, - "If the Hierarchy is not very, very careful, it might find itself left behind as a new, more honest and less bureaucratic church emerges," writes Noreen O'Connor (April 12th). Well, wouldn't that be a great day?
This all-new church might also begin to acknowledge the role of women in today's society, perhaps involve and accept them more within the preachings of the Lord, and, God forbid, leave them to make their own choices about themselves, their bodies, their pregnancies. - Yours etc,
EMMA BURKE-KENNEDY,
Cadiz,
Spain.
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Sir, - In his column of April 2nd Fintan O'Toole asserted that John Paul II "still cannot bring himself to say anything at all on the subject of child abuse by clergy and church-run institutions". This is simply untrue.
Last November, the Pope roundly condemned such sexual abuse in his Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Oceania, describing it as "very damaging in the life of the Church. . .an obstacle to the proclamation of the Gospel. . .a profound contradiction of the teaching and witness of Jesus Christ."
Earlier, he spoke very clearly on the matter to Irish bishops during their 1999 Ad Limina visit, saying he had prayed for victims of sexual abuse by clerics or religious, and adding that "we must also pray that those who have been guilty of this wrong will recognize the evil nature of their actions and seek forgiveness".
Paradoxically, Mr O'Toole goes on to condemn as "slippery equivocation" what the Pope says on the sad subject in his recent Holy Thursday letter to priests. Here, he was not "breaking his silence". The bulk of the letter did what the past 20 or so such Holy Thursday letters have done: namely, join the Catholic priests of the world in giving thanks and praise to God on the annual commemoration of the institution of the priesthood by Christ. A most sinister interpretation is, somewhat disingenuously, placed on the Pope's reference to the crimes of sexual abuse: that John Paul II "resorts" to Latin (in terming these sins "the most grievous forms of mysterium iniquitatis) in order to qualify his condemnation of these crimes, and even "infuse sordid acts of violence with a whiff of incense".
The "whiff", as those to whom the letter is addressed would grasp, is actually closer to sulphur: "The mystery of evil is already at work, but let him who is restraining it once be removed, and the wicked One will appear" (2 Thessalonians, 2:7). - Yours, etc.,
Rev GAVAN JENNINGS,
Foster Avenue,
Mount Merrion,
Co Dublin.
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Sir, - As a lifelong member of the National Union of Journalists, I take exception to Father Bernard Kennedy's assertion (April 10th) that the media in Ireland "work from an agenda which is against the role of Catholicism in this country".
Does he not realise that, were it not for the frank reporting of the media on the issue of the Catholic Church and sexual abuse, not only in Ireland but worldwide, and its solidarity with the courageous victims who have come forward, those victims would never have received the compassion, let alone the justice, long overdue them?
The whole sorry mess would have remained wrapped in that shroud of secrecy and arrogance which sadly is becoming a trait of the Roman Curia.
Why, oh why shoot the messenger? - Yours, etc.
MICHAEL O'FARRELL,
Sweetmount Park,
Dublin 14.
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Sir, - Can anyone explain tome why a priest who has been convicted in the courts of child sexual abuse continues to be classified as a priest and is not automatically excommunicated from the Church?
For example, Brendan Smith was still called "Father" even though he was imprisoned for the most abhorrent crimes.
What does a priest have to do to be excommunicated (and thus lose the protection of his superiors), given that child sex abuse would appear not to justify such a move? - Yours, etc.,
DAVE O'LEARY,
Troytown Heights,
Navan,
Co Meath.