Madam, - Congratulations to Rachel Stanley (April 28th) for attempting to summarise the central tenets of Buddhism in response to Cardinal Connell's criticism of Buddhism as "self-centred".
Perhaps emboldened by the election to the papacy of his old colleague at the Inquisition (now called the Congregation for the doctrine of the Faith), the Cardinal may have thought his attack on another "deficient" minority religion (in Ireland) would go unanswered.
Buddhism has been around a lot longer than Christianity and the similarities between the teachings of Christ and the Buddha have been noted by many. There is even a tradition that Christ may have visited Tibet during his 20 years outside the public eye.
In contrast, the similarity between Cardinal Connell's Roman-centred teaching and that of the Middle Eastern desert mystic Jesus Christ is often more difficult to discern, when one considers his attacks on an "intellectually lightweight" former Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin and the "sham" Church of Ireland practice of inviting all practising Christians to communion.
Practising Buddhists have little history of starting sectarian pogroms, boycotts, terrorist campaigns, wars and inquisitions. The cardinal could do worse than spend some time in a Tibetan monastery. - Yours, etc,
FRANK SCHNITTGER, Red Lane, Blessington, Co Wicklow.