Sir, - I am a 17-year-old Catholic and I do practise my religion regularly. I am also involved in various youth groups funded by the Catholic Church. But I do not always agree with all the bureaucrats that are in the Hierarchy.
Over the last week I have heard of many people getting very annoyed about what the archbishop said. Many people who previously did not care about what bishops said are now getting extremely hot-headed. This annoys me greatly. The archbishop was voicing the usual attitude of the Church to sex and contraception. It is his opinion and he has the right to that. Because it is his opinion does not mean it must be mine.
I am a woman of the 1990s and I don't agree with what he said, but I do believe in his right to express the opinion of the Hierarchy. What bothers me are the even more narrow-minded people who think that he has no right to say something like that. We are all given choices in life. We do not have to accept his opinion, but we should at least have the manners to accept that it is his opinion and not attack the man from all angles.
In this day and age many people are more liberal and free-minded than in the past and no man with a purple cloak and a hat can tell them what to do. If we put as much energy into the real problems of the world as we do into discussing what the Hierarchy says, maybe this world would be a better place to live in. - Yours etc., Julie Ann Lough,
Willington Grove, Templeogue, Dublin 6w.