Madam, - It is impossible to make any sense of Fr Tony Flannery's contentions about the "lack of physical affection towards children" by males being more damaging than child sexual abuse ("Lack of physical affection damages children - priest", The Irish Times, November 17th).
He says that "by effectively depriving our children of the possibility of appropriate male intimacy and affection, we may end up doing more damage to a larger number than was caused by the [sex abuse] problem we are trying to solve". And he complains that "a slight pat on the head is the limit of the physical contact I would have with a child now, and even that would only be attempted in a very public area".
All normal, well-adjusted, adult human beings, male and female, know exactly what constitutes appropriate physical contact with a minor. It is both absurd and obscene for Tony Flannery to even attempt to suggest that having properly established and defined boundaries, for physical interaction with the young, will be "more damaging" than the rape and sexual assault of children by clerics or others.
Fr Flannery's comments betray utter ignorance as to the devastating consequences of child sexual abuse in general and clerical sexual abuse in particular. If anything, Irish society, religious and secular, has under-reacted to the diabolical abuse of children and young people that has now come to light. - Yours, etc,