Beads and bigotry: old poison still leaves a trace

VOICING his disappointment and disapproval on the Joe Duffy radio show at the sale of rosary beads in the shop in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Wallace Thompson of the Evangelical Protestant Society, Belfast, said “rosary beads have no place within Protestantism and ought not to be found, for sale or otherwise, in a Protestant church.”

Such statements should not be dismissed as the mere ramblings of a misguided zealot, for sadly they reflect the depth of anti-Catholicism still prevalent within some branches of Protestantism. This anti-Catholic bigotry, however, finds succour from the Act of Succession of 1701 which still prohibits any Catholic, or anyone married to a Catholic from becoming British head of state. Such intolerance as Wallace Thompson displays has poisoned generations on this island and polluted the good name of Protestantism. With such a fine Christian tradition that gave us Tone, Swift, Berkeley and Hyde, just how did we end up with likes of Mr Thompson?

Tom Cooper