Cathedral no place to sell rosary beads

WITH reference to your report on the sale of rosary beads in the souvenir shop at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin (January 23), these items are not commonly used in Anglican worship here and I would have thought there was already a sufficient number of other outlets available in the capital.

I can understand that Dean Robert MacCarthy has a large, old building to maintain at great cost, probably well beyond the means of the regular parishioners, and that some degree of entrepreneurship is therefore required.

Rosary beads appear to be confined to use by Catholics and could probably be sold more appropriately in places where they will actually be used.

I think Dean MacCarthy is stretching it a little bit when he points out that many of the visitors to his cathedral are not Anglicans.

I suspect a large majority of them are carnivores, but the facilities there do not include a butchers.

There is something unseemly about turning places of worship into tourist attractions and setting up shops and restaurants within them — one is reminded of the biblical story about the moneychangers being ejected from the temple. I’m sure the situation at St Patrick’s is much more restrained than the tacky avariciousness encountered in the Holy Land and places like Knock, but it does need to be kept within limits.

David Roberts

Castlegrove

Mallow

Co Cork