Dear Editor, I’m delighted and welcome Dublin airport’s decision to reverse the ban on the blessing of planes airside.
It’s unfortunate that the initial announcement was made at all. The sudden change, and then reversal in policy was bizarre, particularly considering the longstanding relationship between parish and airport.
Fr Des Doyle’s remarks about the supportive relationship between the airport and the chaplaincy are reassuring. It’s evident that both parties – or at least some in the DAA – value the continuation of this tradition, which holds significance for many travellers and airport staff alike.
Yours etc.,
Eoin Boyle
Salthill, Galway
RTÉ should cover gap in care of pregnant women
Dear Editor, The RTÉ programme on abortion of Monday April 15 was intended to show a gap in the provision of abortion in Ireland.
I challenge RTÉ to produce a programme covering the whole area of the care of women during and after crisis pregnancies. That would need to show the gap of care by the State in helping women to continue with their pregnancy, and give birth to their children and look after them, and likewise of women suffering after an abortion.
It should likewise show the care given by NGOs, among them Gianna Care and Rachel Vineyard. Testimonies of women are there to be portrayed if the will is there in RTÉ.
Yours etc.,
Conchita Legorburo,
Dalkey, Co. Dublin
Rearranging dioceses not in keeping with Church tradition
Dear Editor, The article ‘Irish Church’s restructuring lacks any semblance of synodality raises some major concerns [The Irish Catholic – April 18, 2024]. The establishment of the Irish diocesan boundaries in the year 1111 was a major synodality event with many bishops, priests and ecclesiastics participating. The contrast of that with the current reordering of Irish dioceses is very revealing. In his book The Early Church Prof. Chadwick wrote: “Originally a bishop was freely elected by his people, and the voice of the laity was substantially more than a mere assent or testimony to fitness. But the liberty of the local congregation was not absolute, since the man they elected had to receive recognition from other neighbouring churches. The bishops who came from the other churches to consecrate the candidate by prayer and laying on of hands gradually became more important than the local congregation.” So, the recent rearranging of the Irish dioceses is not in keeping with the tradition of the Church.
Archbishop Dermot Farrell on Holy Thursday said “Many of the pastoral approaches and strategies that worked for the Church in this land over the past two centuries no longer work in the 21st Century. In life, crises bring people to a sense of reality – in Church life it is no different”. The Holy Spirit is needed to help the Church face up to these new realities.
Yours etc.,
Daithi O’Muirneachain,
Drumcondra, Dublin 9.
Think outside box to appreciate Christian obligation to the poor
Dear Editor, I thought that Mary Kenny’s article ‘Wealth and a tussle of conscience’ was superficial in its treatment of wealth – at least from a Christian perspective [The Irish Catholic – April 18, 2024]. Her main issue with the accumulation of riches is that it “can trigger envy and discontent” in others. This shows little concern for the 700 million who live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $1.90 a day or the six million children who die annually from malnutrition before their fifth birthday.
St Pope Paul VI provided a master summary of Catholic Social Teaching in Popolorum Progessio: “He who has the goods of this world and sees his brother in need and closes his heart to him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 Jn 3.17). As St Ambrose put it: “You are not making a gift of what is yours to the poor man, but you are giving him back what is his. You have been appropriating things that are meant to be for the common use of everyone. The earth belongs to everyone, not to the rich.” No one may appropriate surplus goods solely for his own private use when others lack the bare necessities of life.
The Gandhi principal says it all: If we are to love our neighbour as our self, we are required to “live simply [and share generously] so that others may simply live”. This sheds light on Jesus’ many warnings about wealth such as “[I]t is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Lk 18:25).
We rich of the western world need to radically think outside the box if we are to appreciate our Christian/humanitarian obligation to the poor.
Yours etc.,
AP Breen
Bronx, New York