Madam, - It would appear from the tone of his letter of May 14th that Christopher McCamley is none too pleased with me for coming clean about the fact that I receive the Eucharist but have ceased to go to confession.
I am truly sorry for offending him. However, this fairly recent "attitude" of mine about confession is not one I adopted to annoy orthodox Catholics like Christopher.
I am an old married mother in my sixties - not a young tearaway whose opinions change from hour to hour.
Mr McCamley suggests I might be happier joining one of the other Christian denominations. Actually I never said I was unhappy with being a Catholic. I believe the Catholic church is a store house of many very good things. Perhaps people like Mr McCamley are not happy with the likes of me - this is unfortunate as there would seem to be a lot of us around.
I find it impossible to imagine that Christ intended us to go into a little box to mull over our sins and be asked "how many times did you break the fifth commandment?" and other probing questions mostly about the 6th commandment.
I imagine many people - like me, now feel excruciatingly uncomfortable and embarrassed confessing sins to another fallible human being, who may or may not, be a holy man. One used to feel OK with the idea of humiliating oneself - but that was when the world was younger and more innocent and, dare I say it, more gullible.
Perhaps I am a little cynical - but it's only to be expected given the situation. The real enemy of humankind is not easy to pinpoint - it is despair about the nature of man and of "reality". Obviously the clergy are no stranger to this insidious despair and now we the flock know that fact for certain. God help us all - clergy and people alike. - Yours, etc.,
IRENE REDMOND, Granville Road, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.