Madam, - I don't buy The Irish Times every day but when I read an article such as Sheila Sullivan's moving piece on the sufferings of her friend and colleague Jimmy Breslin (July 19th) it makes me think that I should.
Apart from highlighting the personal pain suffered by Mr Breslin (he lost a wife and daughter from cancer) she also highlighted the pain suffered by him as a Catholic in the face of the terrible clerical abuse scandals and the even more obscene cover-ups, both here and in the United States.
The Catholic Church may well wish to move on, and inviting Pope John Paul to Ireland may appear a good way of drawing a line under this awful chapter, at least in this part of the world, but for a great many Catholics the pain continues, along with a great deal of unease at the way in which the Church of Christ has dealt with, and continues to deal with the matter.
Sheila Sullivan has painted the picture of a very courageous man.
Jimmy Breslin's book, The Church That Forgot Christ, expressing his justifiable anger at the clerical sex-abuse scandals, deserves to be widely read in this country. - Yours, etc.,
GERARD BURNS,
Richhill,
Co Armagh.