Column was out of touch and out of date

I HAVE no wish to add to the current preoccupation of the media with the clerical abuse of children but I feel someone should tell Fergus Finlay he is totally out of touch with reality in his venomous attack on the bishop of Cloyne (January 6).

Mr Finlay states: “Our Children, Our Church is the name of the document that outlines the Catholic Church’s procedures and structures when it comes to child protection.”

Sadly, he is quite out of touch (as well as out of date) with everything he writes about this document. From the day it was launched in October 2006, it has been criticised, cut to pieces, rubbished and finally sent for recycling by the bishops who authorised it.

Yet in spite of this, Mr Finlay refers to it on five different occasions as if it were the revealed word of God. Would some kind soul bin all of Mr Finlay’s column?

I note he is described as the “chief executive of Barnardos” — a title that reminds the old folk among us of the evil practice of proselytisers who placed vulnerable Catholic children in “Birds’ Nests” to make good Protestants out of them.

Are we seeing a resurgence of this anti-Catholic hatred in Fergus Finlay’s column?

Elsewhere you tell us “no one can oblige him (Bishop Magee) to resign...”

Did you or Fergus Finlay never hear of the Pope?

Fr James Good

Church Street

Douglas

Cork