Madam, - A sense of outrage impels me to set pen to paper. Your columnist Kevin Myers's comments on the beatification of Emperor Karl of Austria, are the subject of my ire.
On the face of it, I can understand his reservations regarding the beatification, though I intend to seek further clarification. My gripe is not with honest critique but rather with the snide attack on one of the most revered figures in the calendar of the church. In an age when women feel disenfranchised within the church Therese of Avila is a shining light. Recognised as a genius in the spiritual life she is an exemplar also in the temporal life, who took on the high and mighty of her sphere.
I am as ashamed as anyone of the scandals in our Church and the manner in which our Hierarchy dealt with it but do we Catholics have to endure to the end of our days the sling and arrows of media which on the one hand trumpet the cause of pluralism, with Kevin Myers as one of their high priests, while on the other hand riding roughshod over all we hold dear.
At a time in Ireland when greed and materialism are rampant and too many of our young people resort to suicide we need our saints to give us hope and a sense of the eternal in each of us. The lives of the saints have inspired people to do great things for humanity in our own time.
Madam, by allowing such vitriol to disgrace your pages you reinforce the perception that The Irish Times is no advocate of anything Catholic. An apology is in order. - Yours, etc.,
BERNADETTE GILMER,
Mount Argus Road,
Harolds Cross,
Dublin 6W.