Sir, - For the purposes of record, since press reports may have given the wrong impression, only 27 clergy in Northern Ireland signed the recent Catalyst letter from the Archbishop of Dublin and 160 other clergy calling upon the rector of Drumcree not to invite or accept requests from the Orange Institution to participate in an annual service in the Church of the Ascension.
Some 649 (now 650, since one rector has now denied that he signed the Catalyst letter, even though his name was included) clergy did not sign the letter; 71 clergy in the Republic signed the letter, as did 53 retired clergy. Not one person from the Archdiocese of Armagh, in which Drumcree parish is located, signed the Catalyst letter.
I trust that the minority - the most senior of whom is the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walton Empey - will reflect upon their involvement in the affairs of the Archdiocese of Armagh.-Yours, etc., Rt. Hon John Taylor,
MP, House of Commons, London SW1.