Madam, - Fr James Good's intemperate letter of (September 19th) on Opus Dei and the Irish Catholic would give your colour writer Frank McNally a good run for its comic element and sheer entertainment value.
Unfortunately, his letter is not intended to be humorous but seeks to inflict damage on the reputation of the Irish Catholic newspaper, which has consistently demonstrated an independent and objective approach to publishing news and comment to the highest journalistic standards without fear or favour.
His insinuations of Opus Dei control of the paper are not only unfounded and untrue, but also unfair to the six hard-working full-time journalists here, all members of the NUJ who adhere to its code of ethics and pride themselves on the paper's independence of all church organisations and bodies since its founding in 1888.
In my four years as editor I have been accused of being right-wing, left-wing, a fundamentalist, a pagan, a libertarian, a homosexual, a freemason, and so on - and now, to add to the list, an apologist for Opus Dei, privy to the private thoughts of Pope John Paul II and guilty of allowing my newspaper to be used as part of a plan to take over The Irish Times! My response to Fr Good is to relieve him of the obvious stress caused by my recent Rite and Reason article in The Irish Times, which simply reported on a conference in Rome which was run by Opus Dei, and use my "insider information" to answer the two questions posed in his letter.
Do I know if Pope John Paul II was a member of Opus Dei? Given that the Pope regularly confided in me about many issues and sought my advice while I worked as a producer at Vatican Radio, you would imagine I would know the answer, but I must confess it never came up; perhaps my Polish just wasn't that good.
As for Fr Good's second question, no I am not, and never was, a member of Opus Dei, nor am I in any way associated with it. But if I was, so what? Is Fr Good seeking to become an Irish McCarthy-type figure, leading a witch-hunt against people's freedom of religious expression and affiliation? Will Fr Good now want me to disclose which gym I'm a member of? Is this not the same type of clericalism which Fr Good complained of when he ran foul of Bishop Lucey over his stand on Humanae Vitae? Is the oppressed becoming the oppressor?
What also worries Fr Good, is the "terrifying prospect" that the Irish Catholic will buy out The Irish Times! In these times of global fluctuations and financial collapses, mergers, and takeovers I suppose anything is possible, but I would like to assure Fr Good and everyone in The Irish Times that our newspaper takeover plans are not completed yet and, given the ongoing financial crisis, may have to be delayed for the foreseeable future.
After all, as Fr Good has cleverly uncovered, I'm a busy man. I have the Vatican to run (secretly) as well as a newspaper. - Yours, etc,
GARRY O'SULLIVAN,
Editor, The Irish Catholic,
Dublin 12.