Dear Editor, Can I congratulate you on the clear-eyed way The Irish Catholic has analysed the papal visit and World Meeting of Families in recent weeks? Pieces asking searching questions about the Pope’s speeches, his apparent ignorance of the reality of modern Ireland and most recently the low turnout in Phoenix Park for the closing Mass of WMOF2018 (IC 4/10/2018) have real value for those of us who are serious about breathing new life into our Church.
We have no hope of fixing things unless we face reality, after all, and it does us no good to pretend that hundreds of thousands of people flooded into Phoenix Park in the minutes before the Mass began, or that the Pope’s prepared words – whatever about his own late additions to speeches – had any resonance here.
On the other hand, pieces like the lengthy interview with Damian and Mary Richardson (IC 27/9/2018) show another side of the historic visit, highlighting the ability of the Church to transform lives, and to show Christ’s light to the world by putting such blessed transformations in the spotlight.
There were, after all, profound moments during the papal visit, with the trip to the Capuchin Day Centre being an obvious one, and while we must acknowledge the visit’s failures we should also take heart from its successes.
Yours etc.,
Caroline Bradley,
Bray, Co. Wicklow.
We must oppose abortion proposals
Dear Editor, Some months have passed since the referendum which removed the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution. There have been many presentations and articles, including those in The Irish Catholic, attempting to process and understand what happened.
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to David Quinn, Maria Steen, Rónán Mullen, Peadar Toibín, John Waters and many others who so ably represented the pro-life position in such a hostile environment. They are genuine heroes, who should be recommended by our Bishops for papal awards.
The mainstream Irish media really let us down. There were few hard questions for those who seek to make human life terminable by choice. Here are some questions I never heard asked:
-What are the legislative proposals for dealing with any child who survives an abortion procedure? Will parents be issued with birth and death certificates for their aborted baby, official State recognition that the child existed? How will the remains of aborted children will be dealt with? Will parents be offered the choice to bury or cremate their offspring (as in the UK)? Will any child be disposed of in hospital waste?
-If abortion services are free, then they will be 100% taxpayer-funded. What options have the Revenue put in place for those of us who cannot, in conscience, pay taxes to support these procedures?
My mind now turns to resistance. How can we oppose this evil proposal morally and effectively?
As well as praying constantly, we could among other things withdraw all custom and loyalty from any GP who opts into abortion service provision or dispenses abortion pills and train pro-life crisis pregnancy counsellors in every parish, so that someone is close at hand for any woman in need of support or advice
We are obliged to resist these abortion proposals in every moral way possible. We should not give up, ever.
Yours etc.,
Shane Hogan,
Bruff, Co. Limerick.
Not every seed can blossom
Dear Editor, It’s already becoming a cliché of the more reasoned analyses of the papal visit that we never know what seeds were sown by Pope Francis’ trip to Ireland. Fair enough: vast mustard trees grow from tiny seeds, as Our Lord told us. But we should remember too that Jesus also gave us another parable about seeds, the Parable of the Sower in which some seeds are eaten by birds, or choked by thorns, or spring up only to die away. Not every seed blossoms. We need to care for the ones that the Pope sowed.
Yours etc.,
Lorraine Lonergan,
Belfast, Co. Antrim.
Let’s remember just who is the real leader
Dear Editor, After the assassination of Martin Luther King, at a meeting while the people were still in shock, a chap gave a speech where he first stated that “our leader is not dead” and then that “Martin Luther King was not the leader of the civil rights movement”. The crowd groaned thinking it would become a leadership struggle amongst opportunists and the whole thing would fall apart.
Then he went on to say “our leader is the one who parted the Red Sea, who led the people out of slavery, who was born in a stable, who was crucified, died and rose from the dead”. He is our leader.
In times of crisis, as our Church is now facing a global flood of sex scandals and abuse cases and a revelation of the growing extent of predators within our Church and seminaries which is utterly bewildering to the Faithful; we need to focus on the one who is in control, rather than those whose past negligence, complacency and evil deeds have brought the Church to this point.
Our prayers are needed to purge the Church of this great evil that has taken root and even become a dominant subculture in some places. Anyone who has had an enema knows it is an unpleasant necessity.
Whilst the obscene actions of so many must fill us with disgust I believe the Lord is relentless in bringing about the transformation of his Church, “to be without spot or stain” and so will continue to send his Church messengers to lift the lid on what is inside, until there is a change of heart and a return to holiness.
We can remain confident that whatever enemies the Church has (even within its ranks), “the gates of the underworld will never hold out against it”.
Yours etc.,
Stephen Clark,
Manila, Philippines.
Referendum result cannot take away the right to life
Dear Editor, It is a really difficult time for our politicians who are facing into major personal decisions regarding abortion.
They know the Irish are a compassionate people; even our animals are protected by anti-cruelty legislation. When social media starts showing the stark reality of what happens in the abortion areas of our local hospitals, no ‘exclusion zone’ will be able to hold back the torrent of public protest.
In every town there are women in crisis pregnancies who need support, care and reassurance. Rash decisions, taken in panic and under pressure, will inevitably lead to heartache and long-term regrets.
In a country where every calf and lamb has a number, nothing short of full accountability in regard to ‘terminations’ will be acceptable. People will want to know: how many abortions there were last quarter? What methods were used?
An Taoiseach has assured us that abortions will be “rare”. However, we can see that despite the same assurances been given in Britain, one in five of their unborn babies are now aborted. Terms such as “damage to the mental health of the mother” would need to be very carefully defined in any legislation or we will indeed have abortion on demand.
Good, conscientious TDs are being told “but the people have spoken”. The people only spoke after being subjected to an intense pro-abortion campaign, supported by national media and external funding. No referendum result can take away the God-given right to life held by me, you and the child in the womb. “Termination of pregnancy” when translated from political spin means “killing the unborn child”.
Our fervent hope is that each one of our public representatives will vote on the abortion issue in keeping with an informed conscience, rather than in accordance with the dictates of their current political masters. The next generation of Irish citizens deserve nothing less!
Yours etc.,
Eamon Fitzpatrick,
Sligo, Co. Sligo.
Insight into the past
Dear Editor, Gabriel Doherty’s ‘100 Years On’ column is a fascinating addition to The Irish Catholic. People nowadays talk too readily of how Ireland was effectively hijacked by the Church after independence, but Mr Doherty’s columns are already painting a picture of a pre-independence Ireland that was deeply Catholic and where Catholic views on the issues of the day, regardless of what they were, found a ready audience in the country at large.
If the columns continue into our War of Independence and beyond they should show how, far from the State being hijacked by the Church, Irish people leaned on the Church through the independence struggle and expressed themselves through it afterwards. This looks like an important correction to the historical record.
Yours etc.,
Michael Doyle,
Waterford City, Co. Waterford.