Sir, - Rev J. Linus Ryan says "relics are as old as the New Testament" (The Irish Times, April 30th). True, in the sense that a cult of the prophets' tombs sprang up at that time. But even then relics were bones of contention, and Jesus himself may have viewed them askance: "Ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous" (Matt. 23:39).
The medieval craze about relics got into full stride with the discovery of the alleged bones of St Stephen in 415. While the fathers of Trent continued to see relics as a channel of divine benefits, their approval was rather tight-lipped, for relics had occasioned the wildest distortions and distractions in the transmission of the Gospel.
Given this history, one may be permitted to find it troubling that the most salient signs of life in contemporary Irish Catholicism have to do with apparitions and relics rather than with the biblical and ecumenical perspectives supposedly opened up by Vatican II.
Still, the enthusiasm about St Therese scotches the myth of a post-Catholic Ireland. It may be the values of faith and love are better appreciated than before, for we have glimpsed the ugly face of a faithless and loveless society. What is evidently not appreciated, however, is the paralysis of the ecclesiastical establishment. Routine liturgies and theologically destitute sermons are not meeting people's spiritual hunger. The monopoly of initiative by a hierarchy and clergy who are themselves hamstrung by Vatican surveillance has dispossessed the laity and stifled creativity in many ways.
As this system seems incapable of changing or renewing itself, the immediate future of Irish Catholicism will centre in para-liturgical lay celebrations such as pilgrimages and relic tours. So vive St Therese! - Yours etc.,
Rev Joseph S. O'Leary, Department of English Literature, Sophia University, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo.