Sir, - The fact that President McAleese flouted the authority of the Catholic Church by taking Communion at a Church of Ireland service could not have come as a surprise to anyone who read a letter which you published on October 14th. This contained extracts from her article in the Tablet published on March 15th, 1997.
In that article, she attributed "sexist cant" to the Pope in connection with his refusal to admit women to the priesthood and stated that the Church's "understanding of God has been skewed and damaged by 2,000 years of shameful codology dressed up as theology and, worse still, God's will." She further stated that the doctrine of Papal infallibility was a big gun aimed at the faithful to make them "lie down and take it".
Many people, not all of them Catholics, would not be surprised at this ranting if it came from a rabble-rouser on a soap-box but would see it as no substitute for the disciplined, reasoned argument appropriate to the discussion of any serious issue. That is why the champions of liberalism, who tried hard to unsettle Dana, remained silent about this outburst; they knew that, if they publicised it, candidate McAleese would have lost votes.
These attempts to belittle the Pope and the Catholic Church are not likely to impress fair-minded people in other churches, or in none. - Yours, etc.,
Meadow Grove, Dundrum, Dublin 16.