Dear Editor, I was surprised to read in your paper how the censured Fr Tony Flannery has criticised Archbishop Diarmuid Martin for doing “little or nothing” to bring about change in the Church (IC 15/3/2018).
Granted, there aren’t many who would describe the Archdiocese of Dublin as an especially dynamic place, but even allowing for this, Fr Flannery is hardly in a position to criticise Archbishop Martin or anybody else; it wasn’t for nothing that the Vatican barred Ireland’s favourite ‘silenced’ priest from ministry.
Fr Flannery, after all, founded an outspoken priestly organisation despite having written that he does not believe that Christ founded the priesthood, that the story of the Last Supper was hijacked by a powerful and privileged group to suit their own agenda and that the Sacraments do not depend on the priesthood.
Further, Fr Flannery has warned of a “Eucharistic famine” in Ireland and the Western World, despite having written, when the Vatican asked whether or not he accepted the Church’s teaching that Christ is truly, really, and substantially present in the Eucharist, only that Christ is present when the Eucharist is celebrated.
And then, of course, there’s the little fact of how last year Fr Flannery publicly questioned such basic Christian teachings as the Trinity and Jesus’ physical resurrection.
Stopped clocks are occasionally right, so perhaps Fr Flannery is right to say Archbishop Martin has done little or nothing to bring about change, but if the Church became more like the Church Fr Flannery dreams of, it would be very different from the Church bequeathed to us by Jesus, the apostles, the saints and all our ancestors from the penal times.
Yours etc.,
Gabriel Kelly,
Drogheda, Co. Louth.
Ordination of women can’t be a means to an end
Dear Editor, Mary Kenny is surely right to say that the ordination of women would hardly be a panacea for our Church’s problems (‘Female priests are not the silver bullet’ IC 15/3/2018), but surely the issue is not whether the ordination of women would solve the Church’s problems, but whether it is right in itself: it’s an issue important enough to be considered on its own merits, and not as a means to an end.
Allowing for that, and even if one accepts Mary McAleese’s line that the late Cardinal Desmond Connell attempted to use “codology dressed as theology” to justify the Church’s refusal to ordain women, it is very difficult to see that today’s Church has any right to do such a thing.
The Church, after all, arose in a world where priestesses were quite normal. They weren’t a feature of 1st-Century Judaism, of course, but it was at the pagan city of Caesarea Philippi that Jesus first told Peter he would found his Church upon him, and Antioch, where Jesus’ followers were first called Christians, was a religiously diverse metropolis.
Jesus could easily have appointed women as apostles, and the apostles could in turn have ordained women to the priesthood. He didn’t, and they didn’t. Presumably they had good reasons for this, and ones Christ’s fishermen didn’t regard as “codology”.
Yours etc.,
Clare McMahon,
Tallaght, Dublin 24.
That’s one way of getting votes!
Dear Editor, According to the Irish Times the Government will consider free contraception for all in the event of the Eight Amendment being repealed. What a novel way to attract the younger voter! The Government Vision 2018 appears to be free contraception for all and free abortion with the medical card. Is this the best we have to offer our young people?
Yours etc.,
Tom Nolan,
Rossville, Dublin 18.
A long battle but eventually girls became scouts!
Dear Editor, It was nice to read Fr Anthony Gaughan’s positive review of my book All the Red Ties – The history of Catholic Scouting in Donnybrook 1927-2017 in the last edition of The Irish Catholic (IC 8/3/2018).
Fr Gaughan’s biography of Tom Johnson, the first real Leader of the Irish Labour Party, being one of my own favourite publications. However, his understanding of the role of Donnybrook Scout Group in breaking down the male/female barriers in Scouting is different to mine.
In the mid-1960s my own Cub Scout leaders were female – a rare enough event in those days. From approximately the same period a Company of the Catholic Girl Guides was, in everything but name, a full part of our Scout Unit.
In the Summer of 1974 our Venturer group admitted girls – totally against the practice in CBSI. In 1981 the Unit submitted the first of what would be several such motions to fully admit females into all sections of the then Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland. We lost.
The incremental, steadily increasing vote for that position was indeed welcome as on behalf of Donnybrook Scout Unit I proposed most of them. We won eventually and tens of thousands of boys and girls have benefitted from that decision.
Such battles probably look archaic to many younger people today but battles they were and those involved occasionally like to display the scars.
Yours etc.,
Dermot Lacey,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
NWC ignoring other view
Dear Editor, Well done to Mary Kenny for raising the question of the support by the National Women’s Council for repeal of the Eighth Amendment. As she rightly pointed out, this organisation is funded by the Government and, by its name, is claiming to represent the views of most women in Ireland. However, as she states, it ignores the opinions of vast numbers who do not wish to see the Eighth Amendment repealed.
I have questioned why this Council is funded by public money when it only represents those with so-called ‘liberal’ views and, as far as can be ascertained, does not even consult with many organisations affiliated to it. As Ms Kenny pointed out, Minister Zappone’s call for “inclusivity is ignored by this body but is still funded by the Government”. Is it only required to be inclusive of those who have acceptable politically correct views and are deemed to be ‘liberal’. In the interests of ‘equality’, the current catch phrase, how can this be tolerated by those decrying its absence in so many other spheres? Minister Zappone has a duty to explain this anomaly.
Yours etc.,
Mary Stewart ,
Ardeskin, Co. Donegal.
Little joy for the ‘pro-choice’
Dear Editor, The Pro-Life March in Dublin on March 10 was an unforgettable experience. As the vast crowds gathered in Parnell Square there was an open and life-affirming atmosphere. We spoke with people from all over the country as if they were long-lost cousins. We sensed that this was an historic day when the Irish people were speaking out clearly.
Daniel O’Connell seemed to be smiling down on us from his statue as up to 100,000 pro-life supporters took an hour to walk past his statue. The sunshine was in no way diminished by the small group of ‘pro-choice’ supporters, who dressed in black, and scowled at us as we passed. Whatever ‘choices’ they were making at this stage in their lives, they certainly did not appear to be bringing them much joy or light.
Yours etc.,
Anne and Eamon Fitzpatrick,
Strandhill, Co. Sligo.
Archbishop’s fine example
Dear Editor, A short time before his assassination, Archbishop – now Blessed – Oscar Romero of El Salvador made a famous radio broadcast. The national guard, along with the police, were being given orders to kill innocent peasants. His words to them were clear and authoritative: “No soldier is obliged to obey an order counter to the law of God. No one has to comply with an immoral law…therefore, in the name of God, and in the name of this long-suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I beseech you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: cease the repression!”
Irish voters are being asked by their Government to approve the direct and intentional killing of the unborn. Every Irish bishop has the same authority in his diocese as Archbishop Romero had in his. What a difference it would make if every bishop, in relation to the duty to protect the unborn, were to repeat the call of this great son of the Church: “I beseech you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God!”
Yours etc.,
Maurice O’Brien,
Blackrock, Co. Cork.