Sir, - In his Irishman's Diary of February 22nd, Kevin Myers accuses Cardinal Desmond Connell of attacking the Church of Ireland in his recent interview in the Sunday Business Post and compares him to a duck in a bath in which the plug has been removed. He goes on to say that "he can squawk about this and that, but the Church over which he feels he has so much command is in reality vanishing beneath his webbed feet". Such distorted and aggressive comments show that Mr Myers has no respect for the Catholic Church or for the new Irish cardinal.
It is a great pity that this talented journalist should treat serious matters in so trivial and so base a way. This is a perfect illustration of Mr Denis O'Connell's letter (published alongside Mr Myers's article) which points out that, in Ireland, criticism of the Protestant clergy is called sectarianism, but when applied to the Catholic clergy it is merely freedom of speech.
Mr Myers insinuates that the Church of Rome (which Cardinal Connell serves with courage and conviction) will end up by sinking like the Titanic. Does he not know that it has weathered many worse storms over the past 2,000 years and continues to play an indispensable part in the defence of the human being in Ireland and throughout the world? - Yours, etc.,
Jean De Madre, rue Auguste-Vacquerie, Paris.