Cardinal pursuit an exercise in vengeance

IT MAY have escaped the attention of those pursuing Cardinal Seán Brady but their sense of timing is as ill-placed as is their demand for revenge.

This week’s crude demands for his resignation, as it happens, are sandwiched between two highly relevant Gospel readings.

Last Sunday, the reading from the Gospel of Luke (15:1, The Prodigal Son) showed us how love and forgiveness crush bitterness and hatred, while next Sunday’s reading from the Gospel of John (8:1, Let he who is without sin ...) demonstrates how forgiveness and love crush hatred and bitterness, and replaces old law with a reminder that God is love.

If those who are in pursuit of the good cardinal could just walk away from their pile of stones for a while, they might see that understanding and forgiveness, while not being particularly easy to generate, are steps on the path to self-acceptance and happiness.

They may, of course, be content to try to implement their sense of retrospective justice and, in that case, they will surely hurl their stones safe in the knowledge that they themselves are above reproach.

If only the rest of us – including the good cardinal whom this group heartily supports – could say the same.

Ray Kennedy

Christ the King Prayer Group

Jordanstown

Enfield

Co Meath