Madam, - John Keane (January 28th) seems to believe that many Catholics stopped practising their faith because of Humanae Vitae. If this were so, we might expect to find Anglican Churches overflowing, since the Church of England voted to accept contraception at the Lambeth Conference of 1930. As as I know from my own experience in England, Anglican churches are emptier than their Catholic counterparts.
He also claims that married couples are the ultimate authority to test the official authority of the Church. But who does one believe - the married couples who practise contraception, or those who do not? Does one take a majority vote?
Mr Keane is very eager to attribute a lack of compassion to the Pope and bishops, but is it really compassionate to approve a form of behaviour which one believes to be sinful and therefore harmful to the human person? Can he not attribute to them at least that much good will? If he did, he might then be able to discuss the issue on its own merits rather than on the basis of emotive accusations. - Yours, etc,
RICHARD YATES,
Bloomfield Avenue,
Dublin 4.
Madam, - Dr Kevin E. O'Reilly's contribution (January 25th) adds little to this debate. His statement that Fr Sean Fagan "might desist from sowing the seeds of confusion among those for whom, as an ordained pastor, he has a duty of care" is frankly disingenuous.
Whatever about the theologians, there is little confusion among the people of God.
At the 1980 synod of bishops in Rome, Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco cited a study which indicated "that 76.5 per cent of American Catholic women were using some form of birth control, and 94 per cent of these were using methods condemned by the encyclical" (Thomas P. Rausch, Catholicism in the Third Millenium, The Liturgical Press, 2003).
I believe not only that these figures have increased in the intervening quarter-century but that they would be reflected in Ireland if a similar study were carried out today.
The consciences of those who need the pastoral care of Fr Fagan would appear to be clear. - Yours, etc,
LIAM McCALLION,
The Links,
Blackrock,
Co Louth.