Dear Editor, I welcome David Quinn’s excellent article on the killer, north and south of Ireland, which is not the virus [IC 09/04/2020].
As he states, many, many more will be killed by this virus compared to those through the coronavirus. Where is the outcry about this? Why the silence from so many quarters which are more than vocal on other issues? Why no criticism of what has happened in the North with abortion imposed on them courtesy of Westminster and Sinn Féin. Is it in line with the Good Friday Agreement?
Regarding what is happening in the South, we now have women permitted to risk their lives by taking abortion pills without a visit to a doctor, and after we were cajoled into voting for abortion on the grounds that we were saving women lives by having a doctor prescribe and issue these pills and have the woman make three visits to the doctor.
It is indeed ironic to see the efforts, rightly, made to save all lives affected by the coronavirus, while unborn babies can be aborted without any supervision and with no proof of how far the pregnancy has advanced.
Surely legally this is totally unacceptable? Where is the outcry about this?
Yours etc.,
Mary Stewart,
Ardeskin, Co. Donegal.
Supporting ‘good and caring priest’ Fr Farragher
Dear Editor, As a Catholic priest living in Co. Mayo having returned from 40 years in England, I write to support Fr Stephen Farragher [IC 09/04/2020 ‘Priest criticised for allowing Muslim call to prayer in church’]. I do so not to disagree with Fr Michael O’ Sullivan M.Afr but to support Fr Stephen, who is recognised and appreciated as a good and caring parish priest by the people of the locality.
Possibly, what is not understood is the fact that, apart from some priests in a diocese like Dublin, his locality has long ceased to be a 100% Catholic area. Many followers of Islam have made their homes in the West of Ireland and as we know, coronavirus does not belong to a particular denomination.
Yours etc.,
Fr Tom Taaffe,
Knock, Mayo.
We can’t keep Good News to ourselves
Dear Editor, Sr Susan’s excellent letter [IC 02/04/2020] is a clarion call to evangelisation which I feel merits a response. This call is particularly relevant during Holy Week.
At the Last Supper in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, after Judas had left, Jesus said to his disciples: “I give you one command, love on another. You must love one another just as I have loved you” (John 13:34-36). This is what we are called to do.
God takes the initiative. He shows us Jesus Christ the full depth of his merciful love. Faith is personal, not private. We cannot keep the Good News to ourselves. Our baptismal mandate is to evangelise, to share our faith with others, to bring people to Christ.
During the ministry of Jesus on Earth we see clearly how he drew his disciples into close relationship, he taught them, he showed them his authority, and they sent them out to “love as I have loved you”.
Loving, as Jesus means, is opening our hearts to God. Fr Pat Collins says that many Catholics are sacramentalised and catechised but not fully evangelised. Pope John Paul II said: “They haven’t crossed the threshold of faith to form an explicit personal attachment to Jesus Christ.”
These days of isolation may be an opportunity for Catholics to reflect on what we are called to do.
Yours etc.,
Kathleen O’Donnell,
Muckross, Co. Donegal.
Coronavirus can teach us about our greed
Dear Editor, Many people are asking how God could let this coronavirus take such a grip on the world killing thousands of people young and old. I believe God hears every single prayer and responds appropriately. God is not just the God of humans; he is the God of every living creature and species in the universe.
He hears their cries also, as us humans continue to destroy their habitat, pollute their oceans and kill their food source in our greed for more.
More money, more material things, more power and more status. By having more, we appreciate less. How many of us valued meeting up with friends and neighbours, spending time with our families, going for walks in our natural places of beauty and being physically present at religious ceremonies especially at sacred times of the year? Very few.
How many of us cared about the millions of sea life unable to survive in our filthy, plastic infected rivers and seas? How many of us cared about the millions of animals destroyed as they simply had no homes anymore due to mass deforestation and our insatiable desire to have bigger homes, more land and more superstores.
Do we even really care anymore about our children as we stuff them full of fast food, sweets and fizzy drinks made from chemicals many of us have never heard of.
Well God cares. He always did and he always will.
This pandemic is a terrible thing but so is the state of our planet. We tend not to worry about things that are happening ‘somewhere else’. But when that worry comes knocking on our door, we can no longer ignore it. This could be the wakeup call the world needs to look after our planet, our animals, our people and our children.
God please destroy this virus and heal us all, and after it is gone, continue to remind us to value what and who are truly important to us.
Yours etc.,
Mary T. Armstrong,
Ashbourne, Co. Meath.
Cardinal Pell showed himself as man of virtue
Dear Editor, For years Cardinal Pell has been unjustly pursued by what can reasonably be judged an ideologically-driven mindset in the ABC. Coupled with the justice-denying efforts of the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Victorian police force, Cardinal’s Pell’s resilience and bearing through all of this has been inspirational [IC 09/04/2020].
When taken together with his charitable attitude to his accuser, Cardinal Pell has shown himself to be a man of such character and virtue that Australians in general would do well to emulate.
Yours etc.,
Eamonn and Patricia Keane,
Kellyville, New South Wales, Australia