Dear Editor, Thank you so much for your extended coverage of the life and passing of the heroic Fr Alec Reid. A man given to humility and quiet efforts, he was nevertheless – as Fr Gerry Reynolds described him – “a great man”. For all that, however, The Irish Catholic was the one publication to…
Category: Letters
The question of charitable donations
Dear Editor, The present controversy surrounding the executive remuneration practices in the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) invites attention to the position of the funding agency, The Care Trust, which is jointly owned by the CRC and The Rehab Group. The Trust, according to its website, fundraises for its owners and it also has a long…
Fr Reid was a true hero
Dear Editor, – Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them (Shakespeare). A great man has passed in the person of Fr Alec Reid – though his characteristic humility would’ve undoubtedly seen him embarrassed as such sentiment. In a world that lauds multimillionaire football players and loose-living celebrities…
The faithful can find strength in the Gospels
Dear Editor, I found the Gospel message this week very life giving in a time when many in our Church are on the defensive and very angry. Luke 21:5-19 V.14 Jesus says “Keep this carefully in mind you are not to prepare your defence because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom…
We should defend the good people of the Church
Dear Editor, It is good that Sister Julie Rose of Roscrea has commented as she did on the portrayal of religious sisters in a recent film. We should expect that the Catholic Church as a whole would have come to the defence of sisters, brothers, clergy and others who acted honourably in the service of…
Silence on Christian suffering is appalling
Dear Editor, Your front page coverage of Pope Francis’ warning on the plight of Christians in the Middle East (Danger of Christian ‘extinction’ in Mid-East, IC 21/11/13) reveals a sad, not to say disturbing reality in what our current Pope represents to Western observers and the media which has been so keen on the so-called…
Pius XII and the path to sainthood
Dear Editor, After the death of Pope Pius XII in 1959, the Kennedy Directory USA, now the Official Catholic Directory, published the following statistics in relation to his 19 year Pontificate from 1939 until his death in 1958. In 1939 the number of archdioceses in the USA numbered 19, in 1958 they numbered 26 an…
Truth should not suffer for film drama
Dear Editor, The makers of the recent film Philomena have been careful to point out that it is a drama not a documentary, however, in general drama is far more effective in conveying emotion than documentaries and also is not burdened with the need to remain true to the facts. For example according to The…
There is a biblical tradition of relics
Dear Editor, Margaret Ahearne, (IC 7/11/13) is grossly in error when she states that the use and veneration of the relics of the saints is unbiblical and unchristian. Far from it. There are several biblical references, both in the Old and New Testaments, from which the Catholic Church derives this practice and Christians from antiquity…
Pope Francis is far from a ‘straw man’
Dear Editor, Reading from Michael Higgins’ Letter from America (IC, 14/11/13), it would seem that the religious far right conservatives across the Atlantic are not happy about Pope Francis. They seem to see the Pope as some kind of ‘straw man’ who is not quite the equal of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. In business…