Madam,- Fr James Good, my esteemed former colleague in UCC, rightly pours scorn on exorcism, a "barbaric" legacy of credulous "medieval fantasies about demons" (Rite and Reason, January 23rd).
Trouble is, how does he square this progressive line with the gospels? Casting out "devils" and "unclean spirits" seems to have occupied much of Christ's time. Moreover, he bequeathed this skill to his disciples (Matt. X, 1,8; Mark, III, 15; Luke IX, 1) and presumably to their successors. As Fr Good suggests, he should have called in psychiatrists instead.
Fr Good also welcomes the abolition of the equally barbaric ritual of "churching" and the consignment of the doctrine of limbo to, well, limbo. But why stop there? Rationally, purgatory and Marian apparitions should be next on the list of "supposed preternatural" phenomena. And that's still only a beginning ...
What a pity all this mumbo-jumbo was foisted on our benighted ancestors by Fr Good's fellow churchmen who lacked his enlightened theological views. - Yours, etc,
JOHN A MURPHY, Rosebank, Douglas Road, Cork.