Religious tolerance should be respected

I read The Irish Examiner article: “Archbishop: Secularism not all bad for Ireland”.

I was very pleased that the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, said “very few of us would wish to return completely to the type of society many of us grew up in, where the Church dominated so much of Irish culture, and where the bishops and clergy dominated the Church.”

I agree with him completely. Centuries ago, bishops tended to rule with an “iron fist” and it is a bad mix to intertwine Church affairs with governmental affairs.

Here in America in 1960, then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy correctly noted to Baptist ministers that he believed in impartiality.

President Kennedy was a Catholic, yet he made it clear that he would not be bullied by religious leaders while he was acting in an official capacity.

Yet, few people stop to reflect on something else that President Kennedy said in that he had a “faith” in which “he believed in”.

Christianity and Catholicism, whether a ‘majority’ or ’minority’, should let its followers worship according to the dictates of our own consequences.

As a baptised Roman Catholic myself, I know that we all are sinners.

People who believe in Almighty God are free to look for spiritual enrichment to fulfil their heart...not have an overbearing Vatican put a heavy yoke around our necks in which we are forced to walk in lock-step.

All men are created “equal” in some regards, but we all have our own individual “weaknesses”. Putting up with each other is called tolerance.

May this be a renewed virtue in the 21st century.

James A. Marples

Longview

Texas

USA