A chara, – Frank Browne's reminiscences (July 3rd) regarding Fr Michael Cleary are more positive than mine. In 1990, as a fifth-year student in the co-ed Coláiste Íognáid, Galway, we heard him sermonise during a school Mass. His central message was that it was up to us girls to maintain boys' morality in matters of sexuality – the boys couldn't be trusted. I was repulsed then by his sexism and his denying my male classmates any moral agency. I am repulsed now by the apologias that flow in the national media.
Michael Cleary was “human – all too human”, yet whatever about a “passion for being a priest” – and one struggles to understand exactly what that means – he chose to enjoy the best of both worlds while teaching a shame-based morality to impressionable teenagers. More of the “Do as I say, not as I do”. – Is mise,
ÉILIS NÍ FHARRACHAIR,
Leinster Park,
Harold’s Cross ,
Dublin 6W.