Shame on religious bigots in Orange Order

AN Orange lodge in Belfast recently expressed its disapproval at the attendance of two of its members at a Catholic church service for the late murdered constable Ronan Kerr.

What is most surprising about this incident is that anyone should be surprised at such naked bigotry from the Orange Order.

Have we forgotten the events following the Omagh bombing when the then Ulster Unionist leader and First Minister, David Trimble, was forbidden by his Orange brethren to attend a Catholic church service in Donegal for three child victims of the bombings and was threatened with expulsion from his local Orange lodge if he showed disloyalty?

Perhaps these same Orange Christians might express a view at the attendance of Orange worthies at the funeral of the late Gusty Spence as they rubbed shoulders with leaders of loyalist organisations.

Some of those organisations included members who displayed a hatred of Catholics which knew no bounds, and even displayed an astonishing readiness to randomly murder them.

Will they also face possible expulsion from the Loyal Orders?

Such bigotry renders moral accountability obsolete and is toleration of a social delinquency which runs counter, not just to Christianity, but to civilised societies worldwide.

Shame on all of these religious ogres.

Tom Cooper

Delaford Lawn

Knocklyon

Dublin 16