Pope John Paul II led where Fr Iggy follows

YOUR editorial (Irish Examiner, April 20) refers to “the controversy raging following the concelebration of Easter Mass by Catholic priests and a Church of Ireland clergyman in Drogheda”.

The millions slaughtered over the last 2,000 years, defending the cause of transubstantiation, in crusades, religious wars and inquisitions, confirms your conclusion that “few issues have greater potential to cause division and strife … than the vexed question of religion”.

Perhaps the brave Fr Iggy O’Donovan will now follow the lead of the late Pope John Paul II and publicly declare to his fellow Roman Catholics that he agrees with the recently surveyed 80% of American catholics and the 60% of Australian seminarian professors who now believe and teach that the bread and wine remain unchanged and are still bread and wine after the consecration.