Sir, - I refer to Patsy McGarry's report of October 30th, "Politicians `must lead from the front' in tackling racism". Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. The Redemptorists pounded the pulpit for decades, telling people that a lingering kiss would bring hell-fire and damnation. Now they tell us that what brings hell-fire and damnation is opposing illegal immigration and the abuse of the asylum-process - the modern version of invasion to achieve Lebensraum.
It needs to be recognised that the churches are the enemy of the State in this matter. A recent publication by Trocaire and sister organisations ("Refugees and Forcibly Displaced People", p. 35) quotes the Pope in 1995 saying that the Church and its various dioceses were to welcome illegal immigrants. From the State's point of view the duty of the citizen is to report them and the duty of the State is to deport them.
Ironically, the liberation theology clap-trap which is de rigueur in the Christian churches, particularly in religious orders, is the same Marxist message for which they would previously have threatened fire and brimstone. They change their intellectual fashions but never their arrogance. - Your, etc.,
Aini Ni Chonaill, Pro, Immigration Control Platform, PO Box 6469, Dublin 2.