Madam, - Damian Mac Con Uladh (Oct 29th) fails to understand the crux of my argument in respect of the vilification of Rocco Buttiglione. Mr Buttiglione's responses to questions posed by the EU Parliament committee reflected his Roman Catholic moral convictions.
I do not believe that simply because of his political status he should be forced to conceal or compromise his beliefs.
This would be disingenuous and a denial of his imprescriptible rights to religious freedom and to freedom of expression.
Mr. Mac Con Uladh tritely suggests that I am ignorant of certain historical facts.
I can offer assurance that I understand fully the distinction between atheist and secular Jews and the different degrees of observance.
My point is one of religious intolerance. This does not simply mean intolerance of doctrine and belief, though it usually stems from this.
When intolerance of a given religion grows and hatred deepens, the resulting prejudice spreads and tends to target not simply those practising and observing - but also those connected through genetics, association and marriage.
I drew on the example of the Holocaust as it is so relevant to the European Union, being the fundamental reason for the evolution of the European Project since end of the second World War.
However, I can point to current conflicts worldwide, which are also largely focused on religious division - Darfur, the Middle East, the Balkans, terrorist attacks in the US, Madrid, Cairo, Bali and elsewhere.
Religious co-existence has been central to the success story of democracy and peace in Europe.
Religious intolerance has been fundamental to genocide and war worldwide.
I believe that it is in all of our interests that free religious expression be safeguarded. - Yours, etc.,
Cllr LUCINDA CREIGHTON (FG),
Deputy Secretary General, Youth,
The European People's Party,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
Madam, - Congratulations to Kevin Myers (Oct 29th) for his limpid elucidation of the issues that have emerged from the putative appointment of Mr Rocco Buttiglione as EU Commissioner.
In former times, Catholics were precluded from holding public office because their recognition of a Head of the Church other than the British monarch rendered their loyalty suspect.
More recently, Catholics in Ulster were denied the right to adequate housing for the same reason.
Now, the European Parliament has decided that Catholics may not be appointed to positions of government because their adherence to principles other than those of the liberal Enlightenment means that they cannot be trusted to respect the democratic system that has elected them.
The one positive outcome that is to be fervently hoped for from this débâcle is that European Catholics will realise that they must be prepared to give an account of their faith, so as to defend their rights to participate in the democracies for which their fathers, too, fought and died on the beaches of Normandy and in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. - Yours, etc.,
Dr ORLA HALPENNY,
Glenard University Residence, Roebuck Road,
Clonskeagh,
Dublin 14.