Madam, – Cyril Daly (September 14th) asserts that there is a “public all-Ireland campaign to stop Catholics from going to Mass”. I fail to see how anybody is stopping any Catholic from going to Mass on September 26th. On that day there will be no barricades outside chapels, no protests in front of church gates, no mobs blocking the roads leading to them. Catholics will be free to make their choice as to whether to attend Mass or not as their conscience dictates.
I would further suggest to him that calling the boycott of Mass “a positively abusive act” is a most unfortunate choice of words given the recent history of the Catholic Church in this country and elsewhere. No one will be physically hurt by this boycott, no one’s life will be ruined, no one’s future will be destroyed. If only we could say the same about those people who have been victims of clerical abuse and the cover-ups which followed.
Every Catholic church may be consecrated to the service of God as Mr Daly asserts, but the idea that God is only present there is contrary to the central core of the Catholic faith. We are told that God is present everywhere in our everyday lives.
There were no grand churches in the early days of the Catholic faith; people met in each other’s houses and prayed together. We must assume that God’s presence was among them. If Catholics who are moved to boycott Mass on September 26th pray in the quietness of the own homes or together in small groups, I believe that God will be there with them in the same manner.
Finally Mr Daly tells us that “the glory of God dwells in the church”. I agree with him. However I believe the church is the people and not the building. Perhaps if our church leaders were more concerned with their people as opposed to their buildings, we might not be in the state we are in today.
– Yours, etc,
Madam, – Jennifer Sleeman, the originator of the idea of boycotting Mass on September 26th, to indicate the inadequacies of the institutional Catholic Church, is mixing up two understandings.
If one wishes to express their anger and frustration at the church, then express those feelings by way of protest to church authorities.
Why would I choose to miss reception of the Eucharist, which means so much to me in my life, because of defects in the institutional church?
The institution is made up of fallible human beings whose ways of living up to their ideals, and dealing with gross misconduct, may offend their members. That does not mean that practising Catholics should miss what God has to give in the Eucharist, in order to express their disapproval of some servants of God.
Ms Sleeman has, like many others, made wise and fruitful decisions in other public areas of life, but, like the church authorities, she has slipped into human error in this matter.
– Yours, etc,
ANGELA MACNAMARA, Kilmacud Road, Dublin 14.
A chara, – The more letters I read – for and against the boycott – the more determined I am to attend Mass on September 24th.
– Is mise,
SEAN Ó CUINN, An Charraig Dhubh, Átha Cliath.