Dear Editor, Our Lady of Guadalupe was responsible for the conversion of Mexico to Catholicism following on her apparitions to a shepherd boy, Juan Diego, which started on December 1, 1531. As a result, Mexico became Catholic, thus snuffing out the practice of human sacrifice which was prevalent amongst the tribes of that country.
Abortion is also human sacrifice and is now being carried out in the modern world. Zachary King, a former Satanist in America, who converted to Catholicism, has said that he has “performed many satanic rituals in abortion clinics”. He also declared that “abortion is a blood sacrifice to the devil”.
Because Our Lady appeared in a pregnant state, carrying the son of God, she is reverenced as the patroness of unborn children. Scientists agree that the stars as displayed on her mantle during one of her apparitions coincide exactly with their position in the constellations in the sky on December 1531.
In the Dominican Church, in Lower Dominick Street, Dublin 1, there is a statue of Mary. It is a statue showing her pregnant, carrying the Son of God. It is a holy place in which we can venerate Our Lady, Patroness of the unborn, and to pray for both the unborn child and for those mothers who have or may be considering aborting God’s gift to them.
It is in close proximity to the centre of the city, a five-minute walk from the ILAC Centre, and 10 minutes from Henry Street. The Luas red line goes past the front door.
We urge you to make it a part of your visit to the city centre. This church is a haven of peace and tranquillity. It is uplifting, reinvigorating and is a glorious opportunity to venerate Our Lady in Her role as Patroness of the unborn.
Yours etc.,
Pat Mullin,
South Circular Road, Co. Dublin.
Reform and Clifden golf dinner
Dear Editor, However badly or well it may be achieved, the word ‘reform’ seems to be high on the agenda for this State’s prisons and places of detention. Our society in its laws and practices distinguishes between the offence and those who commit it. We abhor the sin but not the sinner. One is punished and the other is reformed. Is that wrong?
If then in the midst of this awful pandemic, the State lays down regulations which hopefully will mitigate and eventually drive away this pestilence, is it not a requirement for all in this State including visitors to Clifden to follow those rules?
Yours etc.,
Gerald Murphy,
Marley Grange, Co. Dublin.
‘Impressed’ by reverence of Muslim community
Dear Editor, I am sure I am not the only one who was very pleased and deeply moved to see the celebration of Eid al-Adha in Croke Park. Because of Covid-19 only about 150 people could take part.
I was impressed by the reverence of the Muslims present including little children.
It was wonderful to see the two archbishops, Diarmuid Martin and Michael Jackson, and the Jewish Rabbi taking part and welcoming our Muslim community and helping them to feel at home. It was also wonderful to see Sheikh Umar al Qadri. This man has consistently condemned Islamic extremism and violence.
The truly shocking part of the occasion was the Islamophobic gang outside Croke Park who shouted abuse and nasty name calling at Archbishop Martin as he came out. Between the name calling and verbal abuse these people recited the rosary. I found their behaviour disgusting and there was nothing Christian about it. If that was representative of the Catholic Church I would be totally ashamed to be a Catholic.
Thankfully it doesn’t represent the Church I belong to.
Yours etc.,
Anthony Redmond,
Dublin 12, Co. Dublin.
More important to wash hands than souls?
Dear Editor, Taking into account many people had leprosy 2,000 years ago, the Gospel of Matthew tells us some Pharisees and teachers of the law gathered around Jesus and they said to him: “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? In fact, they do not wash their hands before eating…”
Jesus replied: “Hypocrites! Isaiah rightly prophesied about you when he said, these people honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. The worship they offer me is worthless. For they only teach human rules.” (Human rules are basically all we have been taught for the past number of years.)
The Gospel of Luke tells us, the Pharisee was surprised to see Jesus did not first wash his hands before dinner. But the Lord said to him: “So then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside yourselves you are full of plunder and evil”.
Then a teacher of the law spoke up and said: “Master when you speak like this you insult us too”. (The teachers of the law, were obviously equivalent to some of today’s snowflake Church teachers and leaders; however, Jesus couldn’t have cared less who he offended or how much they were offended. He went on to say: “Woe to you, also teachers of the law. For you load on people unbearable burdens, while you yourselves do not move a finger to lift them.”)
At this stage we all get it in relation to Covid-19, which has a 99% plus recovery rate, however, have some teachers of the law within the Catholic Church brought us back 2,000 years or more, to a time when it was more important to wash hands than to wash souls? Have some Pharisees within the Church more respect and reverence for sin and a flu virus than they have for Jesus in Holy Communion?
Why don’t parish councils go full circle, if anyone catches a cough over the next couple of months, issue them with a bell to ring, and order them to shout ‘unclean’?
Yours etc.,
John Donohoe,
Cork City, Co.Cork.
Ireland ‘digging environmental grave’ with meat industry
Dear Editor, Radical politics in Ireland would really mean something if the new minister for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine held a vegetarian or vegan dietary preference.
An agriculture minister with a non-meat, dairy or animal by-products lifestyle would be a blast of clean air in a department infused with the pinguid aroma of animal death. Depending on the how the wind is blowing on any given day, the Department of Agriculture appears to be a branch office of a farming organisation or the industrial food production sector.
This alliance between the department and organisations that promote a lifestyle centred on the death of an animal as a dietary preference is so close that it casts one shadow. Industrial food production is writing its own paragraph in the death warrant being drawn up for our planet.
Ireland, with its animal intensive farming and the resultant destructive environmental hoof print, is adding words to the text.
A humane minister for agriculture could recalibrate the focus of the Ireland’s food production towards a plant-based regime while reducing or eliminating animal-centred food production.
The existence of a myriad of vegan diets, sound in nutrition and health affirming benefits, shows that humane food consumption is possible.
A diet based on meat and animal by-products is being flayed as unhealthy, environmentally destructive, and leaking into the violent culture so prevalent in society today.
Should An Taoiseach retain the status quo by appointing a minister for agriculture vulnerable to capture by special interests then there is merit in saying that Ireland, via its politicians, is digging its environmental grave with a bloody knife and fork.
Yours etc.,
John Tierney,
Larchville, Co. Waterford
New bishop’s words about Gospel ‘inspiring’
Dear Editor, Reading your front page [IC 03/09/2020] as well as your extensive interview with Ireland’s newest bishop, Bishop Paul Dempsey of the Diocese of Achonry, I was delighted to see how fervently he wants to embrace Pope Francis’ vision of presenting the Gospel.
If we are to reach lapsed Catholics it’s not through the rhetoric of fire and brimstone, but by showing there is a better way to live their lives and that the Catholic way is the most fulfilling.
Certainly, people have a view of the Church in modern Ireland that is just wrong. To bring them into a discussion and not a fight we must be patient, inviting and full of love. We are in the business of saving souls, not condemning them. It’s not about rampant moralising.
Yours etc.,
Jenny Byrne, Lucan, Co. Dublin.