Sir, - My impression over the past 30 years is that contraception is a problem mostly for celibate clergy who are "scrupulous" in the old-fashioned sense - i.e. a wee bit obsessive. That may be an occupational hazard but it has serious implications for the People of God. Maybe a moratorium on the subject, say for 20 years, might be fruitful. One result would be the availability of some ecclesiastical bureaucrats for pastoral work in downtown areas where the ordinary people of Ireland would help them unpack their esoteric (if not crummy) argumentation about sexual relationships.
Ireland's poor have already suffered enough from unwanted pregnancies; the rich have their own shameful solution. Has the Church learned anything from its rejection of Dr Noel Browne's Mother and Child Scheme? Irish clerical attention could usefully be switched to the alarming allegations of institutional bribery and corruption among well-paid public servants and other well-heeled Micks on the make.
Whatever happened in the Island of Saints and Scholars to Pope John Paul's option for the poor? I write as a recently retired 70-year-old, who was born and educated in Ireland (Roscrea and UCD). - Yours, etc., Fr Denis Egan,
Cheney Lane, Oxford, England.