Madam, - Are the sordid details about paedophile priests, which we hear about almost daily, ever going to end? The latest is the report about the financial settlement to a Sligo man abused by a priest (The Irish Times, August 27th).
As an old-style Catholic brought up on values slowly being eroded by a hedonistic society, the harm done to the Church by these evil men is incalculable.
The struggle for sanctity is never ending and I readily accept that he who is not without sin has no claim to be at the head of the queue waiting to throw stones. However, I believe that a fair amount of the blame for the decline in church-going can be attributed to the sanctimonious hypocrisy of these paedophiles and those who continued to hide them, recycled them and repeatedly allowed them to celebrate the Eucharist after such revolting and disgusting behaviour.
As a result, many young people have become cynical and have voted with their feet. Nowadays they rarely, if ever, go to church and one can understand why. The priesthood itself has suffered, with few recruits to this noble calling.
Churches at weekend are a pale imitation of what they were in the past, mostly frequented now by old people and administered by a clergy whose "sell- by date" has long passed. It takes a lot to believe that things are going to get better. It is all very depressing.
When one looks back at the struggle generations of Irish people had to endure through "dungeon, fire and sword" for the right to go to church to worship their God, I can't resist the temptation to call these degenerate priests what they truly are, namely, "weapons of mass destruction". They preyed on innocent young children when they should have been praying with them and their stomach-turning behaviour often took place before or after celebrating the holy sacrifice of the Mass.
Obviously, Christ and his warning about the millstone meant nothing to them - Yours, etc.,
BRENDAN M. REDMOND, Hazelbrook Road, Terenure, Dublin 6w.
Madam, - E. O Raghallaigh (August 27th) misses the point to a breathtaking degree in his defence of the Catholic Church. What deeply offends me and others about clerical sex abuse is not "the acts of a few", but the deliberate, systematic and cynical attempts to hide the criminals, bury the evidence and protect the institution above all else.
In doing so, the Church has inflicted great harm on those who have suffered and reneged on its founder's principles.
I have no doubt that history will clearly reflect this usurpation of Christianity by the Church. - Yours, etc.,
BRENDAN DUGGAN, Millbrook Village, Dublin 6.