Sir, - As well as showing appreciation for what Kevin Myers has written, such as Fr Denis Egan (August 21st) and other clerics who have written to you may gain from speculating on the reasons for the current demonising of Catholic clerics. After all, the "journalists . . . accountants and computer boffins . . . among the new high priests" were baptised as Catholics and spent hundreds of hours during their formative years in front of Catholic clerics as propagators of Catholic beliefs.
Why then, are so many in a "get even", vengeful mood? Maybe Fr Egan's own words, "The Catholic Church has been the scapegoat", provide a clue. He means, of course, "Catholic clerics". Despite the 34 years since Vatican II's clarification that we are our Church, maybe clerics still think they alone are our Church.
Maybe demonisation has something to do with a mood which says: "OK. You clerics have messed up our Church. If you want to see it as your organisation, you can sink with it. What difference does it make to us either way?" Revenge is returning hurt for hurt. What has hurt so many lay Catholics? - Yours, etc.,
Joseph F. Foyle, Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.