Dear Editor, I read new figures which suggest a small decrease in national homelessness (IC 03/05/18). The statistics from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government showed that 9,681 people accessed State-funded emergency homelessness accommodation in March, down slightly to 9,807 in February. It’s wonderful that this number has decreased, but it is still an inordinately high figure. In our day and age, nobody should be facing this crisis, especially parents and their children. The Government has a key responsibility in tackling this issue, and making sure that everybody, regardless of personal circumstance, has a safe home to return to every night. I also suspect that the increasing rent prices will make this aim less achievable. I feel sorry for the many students who won’t be able to attend university primarily because of these economic reasons.
I do however find great solace in the work of organisations such as The Peter McVerry Trust and Dublin Simon Community who are going out to help those in dire need. Now more than ever, the vulnerable need to be supported physically and mentally. These types of services offer hope of a bright future for some of these people, and I’m sure that many lives have been transformed in light of them.
Sometimes, when walking past the homeless in the street, we can tend to ignore them out of pity, fear or embarrassment. However, we must remember that they are like you and me, created in the image of God. I encourage anyone in this situation to sit down and have a chat with those most neglected in society and offer up prayers for their betterment.
Yours etc.,
Maria Conolly,
Tallaght, Dublin 24.
Not too late for Pope’s visit organisers to listen
Dear Editor, I was both encouraged and disappointed to read your front-page story about how key Protestant leaders believe a visit of Pope Francis to the North could help revive Stormont (IC 26/4/2018). Encouraged, because to hear our fellow Christians, with whom we have had such a chequered history, say such a thing is a genuine cause for hope and joy, and disappointed, because this just shows how dreadfully the coming papal visit seems set to be squandered.
Our Pope has helped thaw relations between the USA and Cuba after decades of opposition, and has been a key player in helping end civil war in Columbia, such that his ability to bring the Church’s field hospital to traumatised societies is not in doubt.
Even so, for a former Presbyterian Moderator to say that a papal visit could help “defrost centuries of animosity” between the North’s Protestant and Catholic communities should cause everyone to pause for thought. Surely, if there are prominent Protestant leaders in the North who believe Pope Francis could help breathe new life into the flagging peace process then everyone can see that this is an opportunity not to be missed.
Does the Pope himself want to miss such an opportunity? Surely not! Or, perhaps more likely, surely he would not want this if he realised what could be gained from such a visit. Has he then been badly advised in these matters? If so, then surely it is time he listened to some fresh voices.
Yours etc.,
Gerry Phelan,
Athlone, Co. Westmeath.
No excuse not to go North
Dear Editor, When St John Paul II visited Ireland in 1979, it was incorrectly rumoured that he planned on visiting the relics of Matt Talbot on Dublin’s Sean McDermott Street. It was not to be, of course, and the visit left a sour taste for some on Dublin’s Northside with the then Pope’s failure to visit the ascetic’s shrine seen in many ways as a snub.
How much greater the risk now that Pope Francis’ upcoming trip to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families could be viewed as almost an insult to the Catholics of the North? St John Paul II famously had wished to cross the border but was precluded from doing so by the especially violent nature of the Troubles at that point, but there is no such excuse now, however precarious the peace process currently might be.
Yours etc.,
Susan McBride,
Tallaght, Dublin 24.
Ignore cardinal, let’s keep Irish churches
Dear Editor, The Dutch Cardinal Eijk referred to in your headlines recently made a cardinal mistake, and the Irish church would be wrong too, to pay the slightest heed to the advice offered by Cardinal Eijk. A year ago the Dutch bishops met Pope Francis to predict imminent wipe-out for the Dutch church.
The cardinal’s advice to our Irish bishops was that they follow the Dutch lead and jettison a large portion of church buildings, thereby concentrating the remaining flock in fewer venues. Implicit in this advice is the assumption that the laity are ones principally at fault in the reduced size of the Irish Church.
In my opinion Cardinal Eijk is like a bad sheep farmer blaming the sheep for their reduced numbers and poor quality. I wish the cardinal could read what I am saying. It is this: the herd was never in more need of Christ and the Church. But the salt of the Church, our Church hierarchy and many clergy, have ‘lost their savour’.
Where are the good shepherds now that would lay down their lives for their sheep? They are incapable of fighting off a chihuahua chasing the sheep, never mind wolves and lions. They have been hiding behind ritual for too long.
Bishops should be mortgaging their cathedrals to stop abortion and priests should be defying lackadaisical bishops to lead and catechise their parishes.
Why not invite Pope Francis to let it be known that he will make up his mind about visiting Ireland after Irish Catholics have made up their minds about abortion?
Yours etc.,
Brian Flanagan,
Buncrana,
Co. Donegal.
Vote ‘no’ for truth
Dear Editor, In his autobiography, Dr David Owen, the former UK MP, admitted to coaching patients in difficult social circumstances to say they were suicidal to get an abortion, as UK doctors in the 1960s would not do abortions on social grounds.
He was attacked by Jill Knight, MP, for directing patients to lie. More recently, the UK Daily Telegraph reported that mothers who went to an abortion clinic never saw a doctor, and pre-signed doctor consent forms were used.
Yes, campaigning doctors are saying that abortion is already happening here with online pills, but that is no reason to kill any unborn baby – in countries that legalised abortion online abortifacients are still being ordered.
The Taoiseach (a former doctor) said “abortion should be safe, legal and rare” – again, in countries that legalised abortion the opposite has happened. Voters must listen to doctors such as John Monaghan, Doctors for Life and the many GPs who are now defending the Eighth Amendment, who don’t offer false compassion and are defending the principles of the Hippocratic Oath. Please vote no for the truth.
Yours etc.,
Ann Campbell,
Scotstown, Co. Monaghan.
I don’t recognise this SVP
Dear Editor, Kieran Stafford, National President SVP, (I C 03/05/18) hides behind the notion that SVP is a charity and that somehow this constrains it from involvement in political campaigns. This is not the SVP that I recognise and indeed a brief glance at the SVP website with phrases such as “latest homeless figures are shameful” are hardly non-political.
The SVP I know advocates on behalf of the poorest in society: what could be more political? Refusing to proclaim Catholic teaching on Life is political and the common sense of ordinary Catholics understands this. As far as I know SVP was not asked to issue advice to members or comment on the referendum. All that was required was that SVP as a Catholic organisation state that it backed Catholic teaching.
Meanwhile, starting with Amnesty, we have heard a whole host of charities come out on the Abortion side.
Yours etc.,
Alan Whelan
Killarney, Co. Kerry
So much more than ‘contents’
Dear Editor, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you” (Jer. 43:4) is a loving reflection of God on the potential of all His creation. Abortion separates us from the Divine Plan which God has for all and it imposes our limited human will on His eternal one. It denies that we are only co-creationists with God. As Christians we have no right to condemn any woman who has had an abortion. Only God can see all and forgive all. However, I believe also that as Christians we have no choice but to vote No in the upcoming referendum.
Last week in a radio interview a doctor referred to the unborn baby as “the contents of the womb”. I contrasted this with the joyful welcome given to the British royal family’s new baby. I could never imagine him being so described. But therein lies the dichotomy of this whole sorry debate.
Yours etc.,
Marie-Thérèse Cryan,
Ballygall, Dublin 11.