Leaving the church

IN his letter (July 22), Eamon Reilly describes those of us who have chosen formally to defect from the Catholic Church as “conceited, self-centred individuals” who “never wanted to be in it in the first place”.

Allow me humbly to suggest that initiating children into the church before they are able to walk or talk, let alone comprehend theological matters, is not the best way to weed out those who truly want to be in the church from those who do not. Is it too conceited and self-centred to ask to be given the choice in the first place?

Brian Carey

Clonmel

Co Tipperary