Sir, – What a wonderful week. We had cardinals, bishops, monsignori, female and male religious and ordinary people rubbing shoulders and exchanging ideas and comments, all in a spirit of communion with one another and the Holy Spirit. Is it too much to hope and pray for that this will continue into the future? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I am intrigued by your report (Breaking News, June 17th) that Pope Benedict finds the scandal of the rape of children by clergy in his church a “mystery”.
Did he say if he thought the scandal of the cover-up by his bishops and the intimidation of the victims, on a global scale and over many decades (if not centuries), is also a mystery? Or is there in fact no mystery to that at all? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Croke Park was magnificently orchestrated and something to be proud of for the sea of people both there and everywhere.
Without the help of almost 2,000 volunteers and their gracious and cheerful dispositions there would not have been such an impressively smooth-running operation.
It was positive and moving to see how such great people gave freely of their time and what benevolence of spirit truly exists. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Great to see a woman on the altar at Croke Park alongside the bishops. Sad to see that the woman’s role was restricted to holding open the Bible from which the bishop was reading! Until the Catholic bishops learn to treat all people equally (and that includes women and gay people), their claim to be supporters of social justice ring hollow.
I believe that, in time, the 2012 Eucharistic Congress will be seen as the swan-song of the Catholic Church and Ireland would be a better place without their one-dimensional and discriminatory approach to life. – Yours, etc,