Sir, – Cultural imperialism is perhaps the best phrase to associate with the sentiments attributed to Fr Brendan Hoban of the Association of Catholic Priests in respect of the imminent arrival of African and Indian priests in Irish parishes ("Overseas priests 'not answer' to vocations crisis in church", September 18th).
Just think if we were to use his words to describe Irish missionaries to Africa, India and South America, or perhaps professionals from those continents who daily staff large sections of our Irish health service.
Having for many years lived and worked in several English Catholic parishes, I am very familiar with parish clergy from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, including many Irish-educated African and Indian priests that Fr Hoban considers unsuitable for service in our parishes.
Does he honestly believe that the evangelical spirit that infuses these missionaries will prove objectionable to Irish parishioners? I would like to reassure him that most African and Indian priests are no more misogynistic than their Irish colleagues.
The one thing that differentiates them from many Irish home-based clergy is their eagerness to proclaim the Gospel. I doubt if African or Indian priests would offer the 25-minute Sunday Masses that I have experienced in the last two weeks. Their slightly longer Masses, complete with well-crafted homilies, would in time become as acceptable to Irish parishioners as they do to Irish Catholics in England and elsewhere in the Catholic world. – Yours, etc,
ALAN WHELAN,
Beaufort,
Co Kerry.
Sir, – It is hard to know which is the more deplorable – Fr Brendan Hoban’s assumption that priests from overseas cannot and will not understand Irish parochial practices or his failure to see that such priests can (and, I trust, will) bring their own gifts to the church on this island.
Fr Hoban predicts that priests from overseas will “empty” our churches. Is not the emptying of churches in large part the consequence of the sort of vacuous liberalism that Fr Hoban purveys?
It may well be that priests from the Catholic Church overseas – priests from countries where witnessing to the faith is far more difficult and perilous than in this land – will fill churches, not empty them. – Yours, etc,
CDC ARMSTRONG,
Belfast.