Sir, – John Waters’s article (Opinion, May 17th) on the higher rate of suicide among young men goes to the heart of the problem when he mentions the “dilution of transcendent hope in our culture in recent years”.
Formerly, the Catholic Church played a valuable role in this regard. When a young man was unable to find work, or if his girlfriend rejected him, he felt that this was a “cross” that had a meaning. Now, in the absence of transcendent meaning, suffering is seen as either merely bad luck, or of such devastating importance that it makes life unbearable.
As someone who has found meaning for my own cross in the Catholic Church when I was a young man, I hope that the Church in Ireland reawakens in order to fulfil this vital role. – Yours, etc,
DONAL DEASY,
Granville Avenue,
Richmond,
British Columbia,
Canada.