Letter: The Irish church in an educated society

From Mr Desmond Columb

Sir: Around the same time as the election of Pope John Paul II, the Catholic church in Ireland went all soft and liberal. And that, asserts Mary Kenny, is the root cause of its present difficulties.

Before then, she goes on to claim, the Irish church wasn't afraid to deal firmly with its wayward clerics. But isn't it more realistic to believe that prior to the 1970s, the only thing that the church handled firmly was the brush used to sweep its scandals under the carpet?

Yours faithfully,

Desmond Columb

London, N8

5 October