Madam, - I refer to the letter from Patricia McKenna et al. (July 31st) referring to "the deafening silence of other churches and their failure to speak out for the victims of war and military aggression. The silence of the Catholic Bishops on the Irish Government's complicity in the Iraq war . . .".
Far from being silent, Catholic bishops have been forthright in their comment on the use of Shannon Airport by military personnel. At their general meeting in June the bishops called for prayers for Christians in Iraq and also for a resolution of the conflict which has caused so much human suffering and death.
On July 1st, Archbishop Brady led prayers in Drogheda for peace in Iraq and especially for the late Fr Ragheed Ganni and the three sub-deacons who were shot dead on June 3rd after celebrating Mass in the Holy Spirit Church in Mosul, northern Iraq.
The late pope John Paul II went to great lengths to prevent this war. He personally met former British prime minister Tony Blair and sent an envoy to plead with US President George Bush. The late pope prophetically commented that it would lead to disaster.
Christian churches around the world have been to the fore in calling for an end to the Iraq war. A permanent end to conflict and war has been the central theme of Pope Benedict's World Peace Day messages of 2006 and 2007.
These initiatives have been well publicised and a simple internet search would have provided more detail on them. - Yours, etc,
MARTIN LONG, Director, Catholic Communications Office, Maynooth, Co Kildare.
Madam, - In their attack on my views, your correspondents Fr Declan Deane and Martin Noone seem to have thrown logic out of the window (August 3rd).
Firstly, if the original invasion of Iraq was illegal and immoral because it did not have UN support, then the current war is legal and moral because it is scrupulously in line with a UN mandate, Resolution 1723. They cannot have it both ways.
Secondly, even if (which I would deny) additional Iraqi civilian deaths were the result of the pre-war American-enforced UN no-fly zones and sanctions, rather than of Saddam's non-compliance with the numerous mandatory UN resolutions which prompted them, where's the relevance? That phase is long over. America today is attempting, however ineptly, to protect innocent Iraqi civilians against insurgents and jihadists. Why would your correspondents, and for that matter Archbishop Neill, Patricia McKenna and other Greens feel this is somehow wrong? They seem to prefer that the insurgents and jihadists prevail.
Thirdly, Mr Noone dismisses Iraq as a constitutional democracy merely because it is new and struggling. How is this an argument for abandoning it? If the war is too difficult to win, as many Americans and others now seem to believe, then by all means run away, emulating America in Vietnam and the USSR in Afghanistan. But don't pretend that what US and other coalition forces are doing today in Iraq is not in a noble cause. - Yours, etc,
TONY ALLWRIGHT, Killiney, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Is it not a sad reflection on the mores and morals of our society that, when Archbishop Neill spoke the truth, it should be regarded as a strange phenomenon meriting praise and congratulations. I, too, wish to thank him for highlighting the Government's immoral collaboration with ruthless and evil warmongers, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. But where are all our other church leaders on this subject? Their voices should be heard loud and clear proclaiming: "Thou shalt not kill".
It was encouraging to read the letter from Patricia McKenna and seven other leading members of the Green Party (July 31st). It is good to know that there are some honourable Greens with the moral courage publicly to take issue with their leaders, who so shamelessly betrayed their principles and core values in their indecent haste to get into government with Fianna Fáil. These power-hungry politicians are surely as hypocritical as their new masters, and no matter what they say, are now complicit in the death and destruction which the Irish Government so shamefully supports.
We are a very sick society indeed with seriously skewed values. - Yours, etc,
GEARÓID KILGALLEN, Crosthwaite Park South, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Eamon Gavin (July 27th) informs us that "the Americans are in Iraq because the democratically elected government of Iraq has requested that they remain there". And here were we ignorantly believing they were there because they illegally invaded a sovereign state. It's amazing what one can learn from the letters page of The Irish Times. - Yours, etc,
JAMES MORAN, Knockanure, Bunclody, Co Wexford.