Letter: Priest was not a bigot

IT IS easy for S G Armstrong (letter, 9 March) to judge from the safety of Oxford the snap pastoral judgement of a Catholic priest in Northern Ireland when faced with the brutal murder of his parishioner Damien Trainor, alongside Damien's Protestant friend Philip Allen.

The priest gave Catholic last rites to Damien, who would have wanted them, and prayed with Philip, who would have wanted that and no more, yet he is judged "a bigot". Had he given the sacraments to a Protestant in those circumstances, he would presumably have been judged "a proselytiser", or worse.

HUGH LINDSAY

Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria

The writer was RC Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle 1974-92