Respecting the concept of natural law

Dear Editor, I was heartened by your recent edition in which Mary Kenny gave a headline to the natural law (‘Natural law exists for a good reason’ IC 30/10/2014).

The natural law is an old concept. It extends back to the philosophy of St Thomas and Aristotle. When I studied philosophy of the natural law, it seemed to me a valid concept greatly backed up by human experience.

The Church is afraid to go back to the teaching of St Thomas and to the teaching of the old Church. We are bombarded by the media regarding same-sex marriage and a child having two fathers or two mothers.

Dr Anthony Storr, the Oxford psychiatrist, claims in his book Solitude that for the first 18 months an infant is completely attached to the mother rather than the father. Let us see what happens.

Yours etc.,

Padraic Beirne,

Harold’s Cross,

Dublin 6.