Sir, - I read with disgust the article by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell (Rite and Reason, November 24th). Dr Connell claims young people are ashamed of their history due to a climate of criticism towards the church. I, as a young person, am proud to be Irish and of our past. However, I am ashamed at the way the Catholic Church has handled the child abuse cases that have happened in the past.
It is of no help to the victims of child abuse for the Catholic Hierarchy to bury their heads in the sand. As I write, a Christian brother has pleaded guilty to 53 charges of abusing young boys between 1977 and 1988. According to one of his victims he had denied this for the past five years and the church has yet not even apologised to this victim personally.
In his article, Dr Connell states that "little is heard about the historical context" and that we are "judging the past naively by present standards". He should concentrate his efforts on the victims of child abuse and not make any excuses for the abusers, from whatever part of history they came from.
Only a minority of the clergy have ever abused and we should be grateful to the Catholic church for providing the nation with a good education. But I wish Dr Connell would wake up to the sins of the past. - Yours, etc., Eoin Desmond,
Goatstown, Dublin 14.