Sir, - The Pope today apologised for the past sins of the Church - for its anti-semitism, its atrocities during the crusades and inquisition. To whom is he apologising? Is it to make the Church feel better about itself?
The Pope apologised to women. I hope that includes today's women. I cite the case of Dr Lavinia Byrne who resigned in January as a sister of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her book Women at the Altar, published in 1994, made reference to the empowerment of women through the availability of contraception and stated that the discussion of women priests was the subject of open debate.
In April 1998 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (today's Inquisition) ordered Sr Lavinia to sign a public declaration assenting to Humanae Vitae and Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. She refused to do so. She resigned as a religious sister. She believes, as she stated in Dublin recently, that as a lay person she will be better able with integrity to continue to lecture and write.
Dr Lavinia Byrne is just one particular woman of today. I hope the Pope remembered her in his apology. - Yours, etc.,
Ann Nolan, Terenure, Dublin 6W.