Sir,- Your issue of August 6th contains a major article by Sister Elizabeth Maxwell, Secretary General of CORI, with the unfortunate title "Priests and nuns keep social economy going" - unfortunate because it is simply not true and in fact is highly offensive to the many, many thousands of non-religious who, with huge commitment, keep a vast network of sporting, community and caring organisations going and provide a network of services, programmes and facilities.
I share her view that "the contribution of priests and nuns to the welfare of the Irish people has never been properly assessed". I would welcome an in-depth, professional, objective assessment of that contribution which would include also any negative social effects of the role of secular clergy and religious in social provision in Ireland.
Frankly, I think that some of the inflated and inaccurate claims made in the article do not help towards that sort of balanced assessment. One claim was outrageous: "Provision for the disabled and/or mentally handicapped in Ireland is 80 per cent supplied by religious." The very many non-religious (full-time workers and volunteers) who are involved in special education, day-care centres, hostels, training workshops, specialist agencies and associations, and so on, must wonder where that 80 per cent involvement can be seen.
The handing over of properties such as those listed in the article are clearly welcome and will lead, no doubt, to new provision and opportunities. It is only right that properties originally provided by the generosity of Irish people should be redirected to new needs when they are no longer required for their original purposes.
There are still a very significant number of active volunteers in a myriad of organisations in the country - lay people, religious and secular clergy. In many cases their involvement results from a sense of Christian commitment. I have long felt it a pity that they are not part of some loose but representative national forum to contribute to debates on social and community development in which CORI engages very significantly. - Yours, etc.,
Rev Walter Forde, PP, Castlebridge, Wexford.