A chara, - I refer to your report of August 24th, "John Kerry should be refused Communion, says cardinal".
Senator Kerry is a practising Catholic who, as a politician, has taken a pro-choice stance on women's rights issues, including abortion. He personally opposes abortion but supports the right of a woman to have one.
With regard to the implications for Irish politicians who are practising Catholics and also support the pro-choice position, the views of Deputy Michael D. Higgins are briefly quoted.
From my perspective, it is most appropriate to highlight Mr Higgins's position in this regard because he, together with other exemplary like-minded politicians, was responsible, to some degree, for reshaping my views on the matter many years ago.
First of all, I believe Christianity to be a robust, outgoing and concerned religion that is debased by the image of the vigilante and the peeping Tom. Secondly, I believe that commitment to religious tolerance and pluralism is an essential element in any modern democracy.
Enhancement of society must be the primary concern of every serious politician and consequently the Catholic Church cannot coerce any of its members who are politicians into making a choice based simply on religious prejudice. Neither should any other denomination.
Recent developments in the Church do not enhance its image. For example, the decision to forbid Catholics to receive Communion in the churches of other denominations is, in my opinion, a retrograde and unChristian step. We seem to be moving in the wrong direction. At a time when attendances are falling, and vocations are drying up, church-sharing and minister-sharing between all denominations would appear to be the most rational and positive way forward in extreme circumstances. Surely it must be countenanced somewhere down the line.
There should be no place for bigotry, parochialism, or parish-pump politics in a progressive modern society.
Finally, I must record agreement with the question posed by Mr Higgins - what priest has the right to arrive at a judgment in the matter of refusing Communion? Even in the sacrament of penance, the penitent is the judge as to whether a sin was mortal or not, and the function of the priest, as the alter Christus, is to forgive, not to judge.
God forbid that we should return to the era of sackcloth and ashes, not to mention the Inquisition and the like! - Yours, etc.,
JACK FITZSIMONS, John Street, Kells, Co Meath.