Dear Editor, Oh! To be a minority! This seems to be the cry of many Catholics since the referendum in relation to the Church pulling back from education.
They could then prioritise Faith formation in the remaining schools the respondents opined. This echoes what Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has been saying for some time. It highlights the disquiet about the type of religious programmes that have been taught in Ireland for approximately half a century. Those programmes have been imbalanced, with excessive emphasis on personal experience and too little on the essential foundation of relationship with God and knowledge of objective morality, which is God’s choice of how we should behave. Another factor is that information about other religions is being taught in a relativist way.
In England, Catholicism is a minority Faith and schools are in the minority. They don’t seem to have the problems that Ireland has in producing balanced Catholic programmes. This does not mean that they exclude children of other religions or input on those religions. Those schools are in great demand and not just by Catholics.
There are injustices on all sides in relation to school patronage in Ireland. There is not sufficient choice for parents, for various reasons so-called Catholic schools are becoming less Catholic and children are being deprived. The Government is caught in the middle. In proposing that minority faith schools can preserve their ethos but not Catholic schools they seem to be moving towards a situation where they effectively don’t want any Catholic schools.
Is it any wonder that concerned Catholics are wondering if they would be better off being a ‘minority’? Lets hope that at the end of a process justice will prevail for all.
Yours etc.,
Eileen Gaughan,
Strandhill, Sligo.
Getting to grips with seismic change in Ireland
Dear Editor, May 26 was one of my worst days in 61 years of priesthood. I listened intently and eagerly as the votes came in on the Referendum on the Eight Amendment. I was shocked, utterly disappointed and ever since find it hard to believe. In other countries abortion has been introduced by politicians, not by Referendum. The litany of past ‘evils’ has confirmed the disdain for Catholicism. The sins of our predecessors and the triumphal behaviour of many in church authority were in part responsible.
The Ireland of Saints and Scholars is no longer a Catholic country. Associating the ‘Yes’ campaign with concepts of care, compassion and equality and the ‘No’ side with cruelty, torture and oppression, played on people’s need to be accepted by many so called cultured Catholics.
We who believe in the sacredness of all human life continue to believe that direct killing of an innocent baby in the womb is morally wrong. The ¾ of a million who were the voices of the unborn and by their ‘No’s’ affirmed the sanctity of both lives. Having an abortion in any of the 26 counties will be no different from one in England.
We are now living a seismic change so we must come to grips with it. The pre-Referendum debates and discussions with memorable contributions from convinced Catholics were mostly confined to their legalities but I was immensely impressed by many on the ‘No’ side.
An election seems to be in the offing so those who shamelessly pushed the abortion agenda and claimed to be pro-life or those who changed their first conviction should be held to account. It is now necessary for all of us to make practical supports provided to women to ensure that as few as possible feel forced to “choose” abortion. Maternal healthcare needs to be improved with effective supports for both mothers and babies.
Meanwhile let us continue to work towards providing constitutional protection for the unborn babies.
Yours etc,
Canon Patrick Marron P.E.,
Fintona,
Co. Tyrone.
Representative body for Pastoral Council is a necessity
Dear Editor, Whilst the ‘Church’ and clergy continue to be pilloried in political and media circles where are the Pastoral Councils whose representation consists of 90% lay people in all of this?
It is well past time for a Pastoral Council Representative Body be established consisting of every Council throughout Ireland, and both women and men lay spokespeople be appointed to defend our ‘Church’, clergy and Faith.
Yours etc.,
John Burke,
Clontarf, Dublin 3.
An approach that may be too literal
Dear Editor, Fr Joe McVeigh (Letters IC 14/6/2018) in his call for the Catholic Church “to start recognising women as human beings…” appears to misunderstand the Church’s position on the matter he raises. Perhaps his linguistic world is too anglocentric and his approach too literalist.
When I say the Creed at Mass each Sunday there is no mention of ‘men’ or ‘man’. Instead, in Irish, we say “an cine daonna“ and “nádúr daonna” and in the Lectionary the words ‘duine’, ‘té’ and other gender neutral terms abound where ‘man’ and ‘men’ appear in English. If the Church did not recognise women as human beings, as Fr. McVeigh asserts, she would hardly have permitted Irish speakers to use terms in the liturgy which clearly include both male and female!
The use of ‘man’ and ‘men’ in the liturgy in English and their equivalents in many other languages, including Latin, follows the linguistic norms of these languages where the male form is often used to include both male and female. I would have no difficulty with the use of suitable gender-neutral terms in the liturgy in English as already occurs in Irish. However, I would have expected that Fr McVeigh might at least understand how the present terms arose and be aware of the meaning the Church gives them when used in the liturgy.
Yours etc.,
Rónán Ó Dúnáin,
Belfield, Dublin 4.
The current level of negativity towards the Church is insulting
Dear Editor, For those of us in this country who are still practising Catholics and who cherish their Faith dearly (and there are many of us who do), I find the constant negativity towards the Catholic Church, both on air and in print, excessive and insulting.
Yes there have been several regrettable flaws and misdemeanours with tragic outcomes committed within the Church over many years, but there now seems to be an active rebuttal of God in Irish society. Between the lifting of the baptism barrier in primary schools, to the passing of the abortion legislation, to removing saints’ names from hospital wards and a proposed referendum to remove the blasphemy law in the autumn, it appears that we are trying to completely de-Christianise our country. A country in which our forefathers battled pagan traditions, and several were martyred in the process, in order to introduce Christianity to Ireland.
There are a significant number of people, including myself, that still value their Catholic faith, and take offence to it being constantly derided and belittled on a regular basis. It’s time to put a halt to this and instead to respect every citizen’s views, including those that appear to some, to be in the minority.
We live in a democracy – or do we?
Yours etc.,
Aisling Bastible,
Clontarf, Dublin 3.
Keen interest in representations of the ‘Marriage of the Virgin’
Dear Editor, I am looking for depictions of the betrothal of Joseph and Mary in churches in Ireland and wondered if your readers might know of any. The scene, sometimes called the Marriage of the Virgin, usually features Joseph and Mary facing each other, presided over by a priest, with Mary’s hand placed in Joseph’s as they exchange marital vows. I am interested in any kind of representation whether in stained glass, marble, murals or paintings, and I would hope to find at least one example from each diocese in the country. My aim is to publish a collection of images of these artworks to coincide with the World Meeting of Families so as to show the long-held devotion in the Church in Ireland to the marriage of the Virgin Mary with her beloved protector, St Joseph.
I can be contacted by email at paraicmaher@yahoo.com or at the address below.
Thank you for your help,
Yours etc.,
Paraic Maher,
Smerla Bridge,
Listowel, Co. Kerry.
