Dear Editor, Nuala O’Loan and Bishop Donal McKeown’s articles in The Irish Catholic of January 19 make for sobering reading, and should be read and reflected upon by any British – or indeed Irish – supporters of withdrawal from the EU.
Ahead of last June’s Brexit referendum, Irish people north and south of the border sought to warn our friends and family in Britain that Britain quitting the EU would be detrimental both to the economies of the Republic and the North and to the still fragile Peace Process. Such warnings, however, were too often dismissed as hysterical scaremongering and needless panic, presumably based on the conceit that our neighbours across the Irish Sea are better informed on the realities of Ireland than we ourselves are.
That the Good Friday Agreement explicity assumes the UK and Ireland are members of the EU, that the agreement’s second strand deals in no small part with EU matters, that the European Convention on Human Rights is integral to the agreement, and that the people of Northern Ireland are entitled to Irish citizenship – all these points were waved aside with the claim that the North is at peace, and that any threats can only come from violent Irish people who are opposed to peace in any case.
Perhaps so, but if we remove the structures that have upheld our fragile peace, the threat from such people becomes all the more dangerous and meaningful.
The North’s constitutional structures are far from robust, as events in recent weeks have shown, and as Baroness O’Loan says, direct rule from England may be inevitable for the next couple of years. What this will mean when – as Dr McKeown has already observed – nationalist communities face rising unemployment because a largely English Brexit vote cuts them off from their natural hinterland remains to be seen.
Yours etc.,
Sinéad Fitzgerald,
Belfast, Co. Antrim.
Late Late insult must be addressed
Dear Editor, I write in order to protest at the RTÉ Eucharist mockery on The Late Late Show of January 6 when it sank to an all-time low.
I cried bitterly on hearing the Blessed Eucharist which we are privileged to receive referred to as “haunted bread”.
Immediately I thought of all those boys and girls who would be making their First Holy Communion in 2017 and all those devout people who throughout the length and breadth of Ireland are involved in Eucharistic Adoration.
Pope Francis in his beautiful prayer for the Year of Mercy reminded us that Jesus was the visible face of the invisible Father who manifests his power above all in forgiveness and mercy.
I am asking the God of Mercy to forgive those who took part in that part of The Late Late Show where our dear Lord in the Eucharist was referred to as the “haunted bread”. I believe that the best description of the phrase is ‘satanic’, and think that The Late Late Show of January 6 should be removed from the RTÉ Player.
Yours etc.,
Raymond Cullen,
Clones, Co. Monaghan.
Teaching on Mass attendance is clear
Dear Editor, I usually find Fr Rolheiser’s articles very interesting. He has a keen understanding of the complexities of the human condition and how we can grow in the Lord through all this. However, on reading his recent article ‘Orthodoxy, sin and heresy’ (IC 12/01/2017), I found it somewhat confusing.
In this article Fr Rolheiser raises the question of non-attendance at Sunday Mass and the effect of that on our relationship with God. Rightly, he distinguishes between the objective wrong of an action and the subjective guilt of the person who performs that action. That distinction was always in the teaching of the Church.
However, the article left a certain ambiguity in my mind. I consulted the Catechism of the Catholic Church and I read: “The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason […] Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin” (CCC 2181).
I found this clarification helpful and perhaps it will also help some of your readers.
Yours etc.,
Sr Marie-Joseph Catney OP,
Belfast, Co. Antrim.
The Eucharist is a mystery of love sustaining life
Dear Editor, The charge of cannibalism resulting from Jesus’ teaching on the Eucharist is recorded in the Gospel of John, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (6:52) and, “This is intolerable language, who can accept it?” (6:60).
John then adds that: “After this, many of his disciples drew back and no longer walked with him”, (6:66). But Jesus was insistent: “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you…” (6:53).
An image that can help us understand this mystery of life being sustained by eating the flesh and blood of another, is the mystery of motherhood. While the baby is still in the womb it is sustained by the flesh and blood of the mother. It is a mystery of love sustaining life, in this case earthly or temporal life. The Eucharist is also a mystery of love sustaining life, in this case eternal life.
Yours etc.,
Fr Freddy Warner SMA,
Portumna, Co. Galway
A question of colour
Dear Editor, I was glad that in his January 19 interview in The Irish Catholic the American journalist R.R. Reno told Greg Daly that religious freedom must be defended for Muslims as much as for Christians, and that given his record of boasting about sexually assaulting women, Mr Trump is not exactly a convincing pro-life champion. Much of what Mr Reno had to say about political utopianism was fascinating.
Despite this, though, his analysis of Mr Trump’s electoral success rang hollow for me. In particular, his suggestion that objections to racist language are simply a class marker and that use of such language is not necessarily racist struck me as deeply unconvincing.
If, as he says, interracial marriage is (like racist language) more common among working class communities than among the more ‘polite’ classes, might this not simply reflect the reality that America’s middle and upper classes are disproportionately white, whereas the demographics of poorer Americans are far more diverse?
Yours etc.,
Brendan Mulcahy,
Clondalkin, Dublin 22.
We’re all going to Heaven?
Dear Editor, Whilst reading the revolutionary manifesto of theological reform advocated by Barra Ó Caoimh (Letters, IC 12/02/2017) I had to check a couple of times that I was not in fact reading yet another review of Damien Chazelle’s fuffy, feel good film: La La Land!
It’s sure to clean up on Oscar night, as the pundits say it will; however, I doubt that its spiritual version, penned by Mr Ó Caoimh, will do likewise in the area of beatifications and canonisation – the ultimate Oscar experience for the Church.
So, are his views solid spiritual food for the soul? I don’t think so! Or are they a fluffy niceness – a mindset where we’re all going to Heaven? Most definitely!
Yours etc.,
Fr John McCallion,
Clonoe, Co. Tyrone.
Outraged at Late Late Eucharist slur
Dear Editor, I write to voice my sense of outrage at the January 6 edition of The Late Late Show which contained an outrageous slur against the Eucharist and Catholics across the island of Ireland. That someone could be so indifferent to the feelings of devout Catholics in describing as “haunted bread” the central tenet of the Mass is one thing, but for this to go unchallenged by host Ryan Tubridy brought the insult to an entirely new level of repugnance.
How on earth can the powers that be in RTÉ fail to recognise that a major cohort of its viewership, and not least for the flagship Late Late Show, is the Catholic community in this, a Catholic-majority country? The ‘oversight’ is such as to beg the question whether they are more knowingly uncaring than oblivious.
While being possessed of a cynicism that any direct complaint to RTÉ will go unheeded, I nevertheless believe that should Catholic ire at this outrageous slight be couched in terms of the all too eagerly accepted proceeds of our television licences, the broadcaster will quickly take note.
Yours etc.,
Donal B. Mullins,
Phibsborough,
Dublin 7.