Sir, - Vatican II states: "They [bishops] are authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach the faith to the people assigned to them, the faith which is destined to inform their thinking and direct their conduct" (Lumen Gentium 3-25).
In the light of that, is the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin (in the developing hullabaloo not begun by him) not to be allowed to state Catholic Church teaching for the benefit of his flock, while a few of his liberal priests are invited by the media to express views which run counter to the official teaching of their Church?
Were the Archbishop to remain silent, he would be failing in his duty as a bishop. As it was "the nation's first citizen [who] made her decision in the full glare of publicity" (John Cooney, Sunday Tribune, December 14th) that fact makes it all the more necessary to have the Catholic Church's teaching authoritatively stated. - Yours, etc.,
St Saviour's, Upper Dorset Street, Dublin 1.