Sir, – I disagree strongly with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s recent statement that the Irish Catholic Church is lacking in people of intellect (June 6th).
There are plenty of top-class intellectuals within our Catholic Church and many are studying theology, scripture and spirituality. Quite a number of those are women. Surely he knows that the all-male clerical club excludes those learned women from ministry, preaching and governance within our Catholic Church. Surely he is aware of our tragic history of the inquisition, anti-modernism and strict maintenance of a closed catechism system geared to shut out prophets, whistleblowers and nasty intellectuals! Surely he is aware of the cruel silencing meted out to the French scientist Fr Teilhard de Chardin and many other intellectuals pre-Vatican II.
Surely the archbishop is aware of the unjust Roman treatment imposed over the past few decades on Hans Küng, Fr Sean Fagan, Fr Tony Flannery, Fr Gerard Moloney and many others who have applied their intellect and attempted to formulate a narrative of the Good News in language, concepts and structures relevant to people today?
Surely this archbishop, after many years in Rome, knows that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith does not exactly encourage intellectuals to articulate the Good News in terms of growing knowledge and modern insights?
This tragic fact is at least one factor in the crisis within our Catholic Church.
The closed, monarchical, male hierarchy is quite dysfunctional, and many good people rightly give it a wide berth at this time and exercise their talents elsewhere in service to the kingdom of God. – Yours, etc,
MAUREEN MULVANEY,
Dundrum,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – Garry Bury clearly misunderstands the Roman Catholic intellectual tradition (June 8th). The issue at hand is not whether a Roman Catholic who takes the magisterium of the church seriously can be an intellectual; they clearly can, as such people as Cardinal Newman, GK Chesterton, Bishop Robert Barron and Pope Benedict XVI all bear witness to. Rather, the question is how the Irish Roman Catholic Church can kindle such vocations among its laity. The Bishop of Elphin’s recent establishment of a group of lay catechists in his diocese is a good start. – Yours, etc,
ADAM HOBSON,
London.
Sir, – How can Archbishop Diarmuid Martin expect any Catholic person with any degree of intellectual integrity to defend its discriminatory exclusion of women from ministry and its distorted teaching against LGBT people? – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN BUTLER,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.