ARCHBISHOP Diarmuid Martin was recently asked a serious question regarding his attitude towards Catholic Senator John Kerry, the Democratic candidate for the US presidency, and the controversy surrounding his right to receive holy communion.

TP O’MAHONY has been reporting on religious affairs for more than 30 years. He dislikes the Humanae Vitae encyclical and Pope John Paul II (Irish Examiner, April 8) because the pontiff proclaims the gospel and not the meanderings of liberal trendies.