Sir, - The contribution by Dr. Willie Walsh, Bishop of Killaloe (May 9th) was as misleading as it was sentimental. It concerned his father (dad) who in July 1941 attended at the funeral of a respected and well regarded neighbour in the Church of Ireland, Bournea, Co. Tipperary. Bishop Walsh's mother (mum) had warned her husband that this was "forbidden by our Church." Her son, Bishop Walsh, endorses her opinion - "he was right to honour (his neighbour) in death even without the approval of his Church."
I am surprised that an Irish Catholic Bishop does not know that his father was entitled to be present at his neighbour's funeral as an outward mark of charity and honour. Bishop Walsh should know, and should have known, that Canon Law provided explicit accommodation for his father's attendance at such a funeral.
In seeking to ingratiate himself with present times Bishop Walsh does not hesitate to offer a serious disparagement of the Church in past times. The fact that his public disparagement is based on his own unawareness compounds the matter.
Bishop Walsh did not say, as might have been appropriate, that very likely many of the neighbours, including his own good father, offered the greatest possible act of courteous charity by praying for the repose of the neighbour's soul at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Perhaps he ran out of space.
I would invite Bishop Walsh to withdraw the implication of his article. - Yours, etc.,
Howth Road,
Dublin 5.