I am appalled at Mary McAleese’s recent attack on the Catholic Church as an “empire of misogyny”. Is she stating that my late uncle, Very Rev George O’Hanlon, who was a parish priest up in Glenravel for many years,
was a misogynist? Is she stating that my late mother who was a loyal servant of the Church for many years until her death in 2016 was a misogynist? In her sweeping assertions, which are not grounded in any objective reality, Ms McAleese is making clear that she thinks that faithful members of the Church are fools or worse.
As a lawyer, she seems to only think of the Church as a political, legal organisation, whereas anyone who has studied theology knows that the Church is much more than that, it is the people of God.
To get a clearer understanding of what the Church really is, Ms McAleese should read the beautiful descriptions of the Church in the important Vatican II document Lumen Gentium. Instead, she picks out lines in obscure canonical law documents to attack the Church with – documents that most bishops never refer to, never mind ordinary parish priests.
It is supreme arrogance on the part of Ms McAleese that she says that she won’t bother even engaging with the theological arguments against the ordination of women as they are, in her view, ‘codology’ – but if she was seriously interested in reform, that is exactly what she would do, namely come up with good theological arguments in favour of women priests.
She only quotes the first sentence of canon law 212.3 that the faithful “have the right, indeed at times the duty... to manifest to the sacred pastors their views on matters which concern the good of the Church” but she completely ignores the important qualification to that right set out in the second sentence of that canon, which provides that in making those views to other people, the faithful “must always respect the integrity of faith and morals, show due reverence to the pastors, and take into account both the common good and the dignity of individuals”. It is clear that Ms McAleese’s rhetoric against the Church does not meet any of this criteria.
Her confused and offensive ramblings do not represent me, and nor do they represent the majority of Catholics in our country.
JOE O'HANLON
Clontarf, Dublin 3
Britain’s biggest mistake was partitioning Ireland
The UK prime minister’s recent Brexit speech was long, complex and clouded, encompassing all solutions and players and the issue of the Irish border. It was tinted with the centuries old British stance of divide and conquer. For centuries Britain has sought to conquer Ireland and treat it as a colony. There were various methods used and because of their overall strength and conniving they succeeded. Their biggest mistake was the partitioning of Ireland. This caused a split in the Irish republican movement, resulting in a civil war. But more so, it created a division of its people and a very possible threat of a civil war in the six north eastern counties of Ireland.
A new parliament was set up in Northern Ireland. Ordinary laws were done away with and a police state regime was installed to subdue the nationalist population. In the years following the British government turned a blind eye to the draconian system of discrimination based upon religious beliefs. As was inevitable a rising generation of young nationalists became dissatisfied and disillusioned and started a civil rights campaign which led to the multi-party negotiations of 1998.
To sum up the events of the British shameful involvement in Ireland Paul Johnson, a distinguished English journalist and an ardent supporter of Margaret Thatcher at the time, wrote in the New Statesman many years ago: ‘In Ireland over the centuries, we have tried every possible formula: direct rule, indirect rule, genocide, apartheid, puppet parliaments, real parliaments, martial law, civil law, colonisation, partition.’ He concluded with: ‘Nothing has worked. The only solution we have not tried is absolute and unconditional withdrawal.’
Now with the addition of the agreement reached in the multi-party negotiations of 1998 the British and Irish governments have the mechanism to let the people of the whole island of Ireland vote on getting rid of the border by reunification of a new Ireland.
So why not try it now. It will happen in any event.
JAMES G BARRY
Dublin 6W
Time to call spade a spade
As the crunch time is beckoning fast where the British people will know their fate – whether Britain will be free from the shackles of the EU or be sold down the proverbial river.
Any country’s national identity is an honourable desire for its people to hold. The stalwarts of Northern Ireland’s conflict, who wish to remain British or to become a totally independent 32-county nation, is a prime example.
As one who is old enough to have lived through the Second World War, where tens of millions of people of varying faiths and nationalities sacrificed their lives to defeat Adolf Hitler’s Nazism, I find it most ironic and fearful that today the policy of the present European Union indicates to me many chilling similarities, that Adolf Hitler held.
Every society is to the greater extent governed by the media and the billionaires, whose knowledge of manual labour is close enough to zero.
However, every country’s economy is gained by the labour of its people, not the financial speculators of this world whose only desire is to make money.
HARRY STEPHENSON
Kircubbin, Co Down
Sniping from sidelines
In his letter (March 5) Harry Hutchinson, who signs himself Labour NI misrepresents families who felt they had no other option but to take to the streets and in their thousands march to city hall from all parts of Belfast and beyond.
He states that the time for truth rally was led by Sinn Féin – utter rubbish and offensive. Myself and members of my family marched behind a banner led by relatives demanding truth and justice and not as he implies by Sinn Féin.
I think his letter is the only thing that will cause division. We are united and in the case of our young brother Paul Armstrong – who was brutally tortured and murdered aged just 18 by the UVF on November 8 1974 – we will continue to search for truth and justice and let me add, we will not be deterred by Harry Hutchinson sniping from the sidelines.
GERRY ARMSTRONG
Belfast BT17
Negotiating gambit
Theresa May’s English cabinet, for this is surely what they are, appear to be deploying a timeless Irish negotiating gambit.
In short, an English tourist travelling through Ireland stops to ask a local for directions and is told: ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t start from here.’
Similarly, the British Brexit negotiating team have persistently told their opposite numbers in the EU negotiating team that they shouldn’t start with the phase one withdrawal agreement, but start with full-blown trade negotiations instead.
Nevertheless the EU negotiating team have repeatedly explained that in order to get to trade negotiations they must indeed first negotiate their way from here [phase one withdrawal agreement] to get to there [trade negotiations].
BERNARD J MULHOLLAND
Belfast BT9
