Madam, - The article in your edition of November 17th from the President of St Patrick's College Maynooth under the heading "Maynooth determined to emerge from shadows" is just amazing. In it, Mgr Dermot Farrell concentrates almost entirely upon priests. For instance: "We need priests of courage and integrity, people profoundly human who are deeply rooted in Christ".
Similar references to "priests" are repeated again and again.
The writer needs to be reminded that the Church already has such priests - in fact the vast majority of them.
However, the amazing thing is that not once in the entire article does the writer make any reference whatever to the universal Hierarchy of the church which lied, covered up and above all, transferred paedophile priests to other dioceses without indicating the full facts. As a direct result of this, the good priests have become victims of widespread horror and distrust even in the minds of the Roman Catholic laity.
Ms Liz O'Donnell is to be congratulated for having begun to dig deep in search of the truth behind this universal malaise. Further digging, I suggest, would reveal an interesting fact - Rome's list of Seven Deadly Sins fails to include any reference to the eighth Commandment of God: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."
Naturally one is tempted to enquire, "If lying is not a deadly sin, then what exactly is it?"
I suggest that members of the Hierarchy from Ferns to Rome are the people best equipped to answer that question. - Yours, etc,
W. G. GLENN,
Belgrave Square,
Dublin 6.