Excluded From Membership

Sir, - How interesting it is to hear Archbishop Clifford getting hot under the collar because a particular group is excluded …

Sir, - How interesting it is to hear Archbishop Clifford getting hot under the collar because a particular group is excluded from membership of the GAA. He obviously feels passionately about inclusiveness. Or does he?

I cannot remember hearing him speak in condemnation of the fact that 50 per cent of the population is excluded from membership of the priesthood of the other, larger, organisation to which he belongs i.e. the Catholic Church.

What a pity we have not heard him say that the Catholic Church is "out of step" with the whole movement towards equality and respect between the sexes in the 20th century and "would have to do some catching up" to row back the tide of young women who are leaving the Church because they are not prepared to be excluded and treated as second class citizens.

Having appointed himself the conscience of the GAA, maybe he should now set his sights a little higher and, perhaps, become the conscience of the bigger organisation to which he belongs and address some of the fundamental injustices that exist in the church and the divisions that these are causing. - Yours, etc., Eibhlin Campbell,

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Carbury, Co Kildare.