Madam, - Paddy Agnew (The Irish Times, January ), may well be correct when he suggests that "young people may be alienated by the Pope's views on love". To the extent that they actually know about the encyclical, let alone read it, they may, like the young man in the gospel, "go away sorrowing".
But not all of them. Those of us who have been privileged to work with young people are aware that adolescence is the period of the greatest egocentricity. It is also the period when people are most attracted to models of altruism and self-sacrifice - and most drawn to an ideal of self-denying love.
Instead of waving his blackthorn stick, Benedict XVI has tried to remind us of God's love for all of us and all of creation.
The problem, of course, lies in the huge gap between this vision of unqualified love and the actuality of how the institutional Church too often behaves in "real" life. It is on how ( if at all) Benedict addresses this anomaly that his papacy will be judged.
Like Hans Kung in the recent RTÉ documentary, I am "quietly optimistic". - Yours, etc,
MAURICE O'CONNELL, Oakpark, Tralee, Co Kerry.
Madam, - What a pleasure it was to read your Editorial/Letters page on Thursday.
As usual I scanned through the letters and spotted the missive from one of Ireland's best, John A Murphy, in reply to another of the best, Fr James Good. Too often in the extremist world of today good men do not debunk myths and superstitions - and exorcism and all its religious fellow-travellers needs debunking.
I then read your excellent Editorial and I'm afraid I must agree with you that Pope Benedict's Encyclical does reflect "a cold, bleak view of human nature and sexuality". Memories of the good days of Pope John XXIII flood back.
But the best to last! Kevin Myers's serious commentary on the manner in which the Irish Hierarchy and the Irish public have been swept along by liberal Ireland's relentless agenda was incisive and timely.
Too little criticism has appeared in the media of Fr Dillane's fathering of a child with his young partner. Even in today's liberal Ireland a priest is in a position of influence and authority with many of his flock and should act accordingly. The lionising of Fr Dillane in some quarters of Liberal Ireland has been difficult to accept.
The man acted outrageously, whether the pregnancy was planned or unplanned, and the fact that he did not run away only makes him better than Casey and Cleary, which is nothing of which to be proud.
What a superb page 19!
- Yours, etc, DONAL MURRAY, Rosegreen Avenue, Beaumont, Cork.