Dear Editor, I am sometimes amused by discussions within the Church about the possibility of Catholics with same-sex attraction. Much of the commentary seems entirely unaware that gay Catholics – many of them couples with fellow gay Catholics – are part and parcel of every parish community in the country. In some parishes, they are openly acknowledged, in many other parishes priests and other parishioners agree not to know!
If the Church is serious about the commitment to be inclusive and open to all, the starting point needs to be an acknowledgement that gay people are as much part of the Church community as everyone else. This is a fundamental issue of welcome and belonging.
Other issues, inevitably, flow from this such as what the Church’s approach to committed and faithful same-sex couples should be. Thus far, the attitude seems to be to ignore their existence. Some people will see this as pushing an agenda towards same-sex blessings in church, but I don’t think anyone expects the Church to change its fundamental teaching that sex should be reserved for marriage and marriage is between one man and one woman.
That being said, there are serious questions to be explored about whether or not the Church should look at long-term committed relationships as intrinsically better than a series of casual encounters.
Yours etc.,
Mary Kelly,
Cork City.
Domestic violence works both ways
Dear Editor, I write with reference to your article on domestic violence ‘The fight against domestic violence’ (IC 01/02/2018).
Now, it’s not the purpose of this letter to downplay the issue of domestic violence against women, nor does this writer have any special expertise in this area. Nevertheless, I believe it’s fair to say that domestic violence is invariably seen as being almost always a male-on-female phenomenon. The truth is that this is far from being the case. UK Office for National Statistics figures suggest that as many as 40% of domestic violence victims in the UK are male. It seems reasonable to assume that the situation is not much different in Ireland.
Veteran UK anti-domestic-violence activist Erin Pizzey, who opened the first shelter for abused women in the UK in 1971, quickly learned from her own experience of dealing with the issue that domestic violence was far from being purely a matter of men abusing women and that much of it was reciprocal – and she made her views publicly known.
This was over 40 years ago, yet domestic violence continues to be perceived as being almost entirely male-on-female and continues to be portrayed as such in the mainstream media.
Why is this? Well, at least part of the answer may lie in the fact that Ms Pizzey, after being hailed initially as a feminist heroine in the early 1970s, has been reviled by radical feminists ever since for stating publicly what she knew to be the truth, and has been largely ignored to this day by the mainstream media and by public policy-makers.
Yours etc.,
Hugh Gibney,
Athboy, Co Meath.
There is no middle ground
Dear Editor, The government said recently that it wishes to seek out the ‘middle ground’ in the upcoming abortion debate. One is prompted to ask what this middle ground might look like in this situation given that the essence of the debate, when all is said and done, is about whether the child in the womb lives or dies. Do they mean that after the issue is decided, that the child will be left only half alive?
Yours etc.,
John Cleary,
Redmondstown,
Co. Wexford.
Thinking outside the box
Dear Editor,
Many thanks for your item in The Irish Catholic of February 1 advising us about the closure of ‘Equate: Equality in Education’.
It is remarkable that such a well-funded organisation, with a former Minister of Education on the Board, could have such influence at Government level with respect to changing the education system in our country. The main media channels very much control the news delivered to us in order that we won’t know the involvement of the politicians in such bodies with such agendas.
Please keep us advised of these and similar news items that are normally not covered by the main media channels.
Yours etc.,
James Byrne,
Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow.
Hands are no cleaner
Dear Editor, In his letter, ‘The Host in hand, (IC 1/2/18), Fr Brendan McConvery expresses concern that Communion on the tongue may spread infectious disease. We swallow saliva 10 to 15 hundred times a day. It’s nature’s way of keeping the mouth and tongue clean. So the tongue may be cleaner than the hand. In touching the hands of a communicants, Fr Brendan could be transferring germs from one to the next.
Referring to Communion in the hand during a visit to Germany in 1980, Pope John Paul II said:“I say that I cannot be for it, and also cannot recommend it.”
Yours etc.,
Dan Fitzpatrick,
Knocknacarra Park,
Galway.
We have no right to decide who lives and who dies
Dear Editor, General Charles Andrew Joseph Mary De Gaulle was undoubtedly one of the great leaders of France during and after the Second World War, and later as President of France – and he is remembered here in Ireland because he chose Connemara for his holidays and as a place to find peace.
He was the father of five children, the youngest of whom was Anne. She was his favorite daughter, whom he described as “my joy”. Not known as a man of much emotion to the world, he opened his heart to Anne, singing to her, telling her stories, laughing and dancing with her and enjoying her company. She brought out a deep humanity in him that otherwise would never have been known.
To his indescribable grief, she died in her father’s arms from pneumonia at the age of 20. He kept her picture over his heart in a silver locket which in 1962 stopped an assassin’s bullet. Anne had Down’s syndrome but it didn’t make her any less human – she was a gift of joy to France and to the world, and not just to her father, and because of her the Fondation Anne de Gaulle exists. General De Gaulle’s dying wish was that he be buried next to his beloved Anne.
We must remember that everyone, no matter who, has a right to be born. We have no right to decide who should die.
Yours etc.,
William A. Thomas,
Craughwell,
Co. Galway.
Erroneous opinions are the real problem
Dear Editor, The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) are quick to jump on the bandwagon and claim that the Vatican are seeking to silence the voice of women, when in actual fact the Vatican has every right to be concerned about anyone, be they man or woman, who would seek to falsify the teachings of the Church. It is not women per se that are the issue, but erroneous opinions, that are called into question. The Church, as every Catholic should know, deals in the truth, not in popular opinions.
Yours etc.,
Rosarie O’Sullivan,
Greenmount,
Cork.
Paying lip service to asylum seekers
Dear Editor, I am truly appalled by this Government’s minimalist approach to the issue of allowing asylum seekers to work. It is a consistent theme of Church teaching that work is a fundamental right. In fact, in work men and women find their dignity as co-operators with the Creator to help build up the common good.
Thank God for Bishop Kevin Doran for pointing out that with the Government’s response to the Supreme Court, very few asylum seekers will actually benefit from the judgement.
In Ireland, we like to delude ourselves that we are a welcoming place – perhaps to tourists, not so to those we perceive as not part of our community.
Yours etc.,
Vincent Murphy,
Ballymun, Dublin 11.
