Madam, - Archbishop Sean Brady is right to highlight his concerns about "a growing coarseness and aggression" in our society (The Irish Times, December 18th). Now that Ireland is materially rich, can it restore some of its diminishing values such as care, concern, courtesy and consideration for the needs of others, be it on the road, in the workplace or wherever two or more gather?
Maybe my way of thinking is an anachronism in Celtic Tiger Ireland, but wouldn't it make life so much more pleasant for all of us? - Yours, etc,
JOE McBRIDE, Lorcan Park, Santry, Dublin 9.
Madam, - I agree with Archbishop Seán Brady that there is a growing "coarseness and aggression" in Irish society over the past 10 years . I disagree with his diagnosis that this is due to increased secularisation and the marginalisation of religion.
Surely the development over the same period of a society based on pure capitalism has played a major role. The growth of greed, aggression and ignorance could not have had a better seed-bed than the Ireland of the past decade. Our political masters, whose vision reaches only to the horizon of the next election, have, despite their overflowing coffers, totally failed to build a decent human community in their rush to force-feed an economy of perpetual growth, fuelled by ever more stressed consumers afloat on an ocean of debt.
Is it any wonder that the worker bees are more coarse and aggressive? Incidentally, I am one of "those who stopped worshipping", over 50 years ago, but I would humbly submit that I am not "the poorer for it". Those who know me well cannot discern any resemblance to either Podge or Rodge. - Yours, etc,
PAT KELLY, Puckane, Nenagh, Co Tipperary.
Madam, - I was amused by Archbishop Sean Brady's suggestion that the numbers of pupils at Catholic schools, rather than falling Mass attendance and vocations, should be used as a yardstick for assessing "the life of the Church".
As the pastor of a non-Catholic church, I have many children in my congregation who have no choice but to attend a Catholic school as there would otherwise be no place for them Ireland's educational system. These children have been forced to attend Catholic acts of worship (on at least one occasion being threatened with violence if they refused to participate).
Such enforced sectarian practices do not provide evidence of a vibrant "life of the Church", any more than the Penal Laws were evidence of the life of the established Protestant Church.
The archbishop says the right of Catholic parents to supply a Catholic education for their children "must be respected". However, in Ireland in 2006 this "right" appears to be that non-Catholics are forced to financially support Catholic schools through their taxes while simultaneously being denied the opportunity to provide their own children with their preferred religious education.
Such State-sponsored sectarianism is, in my humble opinion, more of a dehumanising influence on Irish society than the antics of Podge and Rodge. - Yours, etc,
Rev NICK PARK, Mooretown, Dundalk, Co Louth.