Sir, - There seems to be a jinx on the Deanery of St Patrick's Cathedral. Since the days of Dean Swift, its occupant seems compelled (by some unseen force) to launch a broadside at the government of the day.
Dr Robert MacCarthy, the present incumbent, has now stated publicly that he would not "on principle" accept any invitations "in the name of the Taoiseach and Ms Larkin". By this one-man moral crusade Dr MacCarthy strives to fill the moral vacuum in the life of the Irish State so noticeably vacated by the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church since the Bishop Casey scandal in 1992.
The Catholic Church has learnt a lesson which seems to have gone unnoticed by Swift's successor: the Irish people do not want hypocrites as leaders. Nor, it seems, do they want divorced men as their leaders either. And no Irish leader since Parnell would risk the political suicide of a divorce. Hence the Taoiseach's dilemma.
Yet the moral cant about the Taoiseach and Ms Celia Larkin seems pathetic. He has a stable relationship with a woman he loves and evidently maintains good relations with his ex-wife and children. Both parties behave with great discretion and decorum. However, when the Taoiseach travels abroad there are angry letters to this newspaper about the taxpayer footing Ms Larkin's expenses.
When Dr MacCarthy was Rector of Galway, he was known to be a compassionate clergyman who followed in the ecumenical and charitable traditions established by Canon Berry in the 1920s. If he wishes to increase the influence of St Patrick's in the life of the State, he is surely going in the wrong direction by lecturing people (who are not of his church) about their morals - either real or imagined. - Yours, etc.,
Bernard O'Grady, Santana, Sao Paulo, Brazil.