Arrogant and elitist statements

In the “Sunday Letter” for June 17, published at the Dominican Priory in Tallaght Village, and distributed in churches throughout Ireland, the author states: “The place in which we find ourselves is the place to which God’s providence has led us: the families we are born into, the villages, towns and cities where we live, and even our country — God has placed us here for our greater happiness and for his glory”.

Later he says: ” … God has planted you in the most fertile soil; around you he has placed every joy and happiness you need for your growth”.

These seem to me to be among the most arrogant and elitist statements I have ever read. I can only presume that the author was excluding from these statements the hundreds and thousands of small children dying of starvation in the war-torn regions of Africa, the children born into drug addicted families, and those born into slavery in parts of the Middle East.

Are these children “where they are meant to be”? Is their misery, pain and death designed for their “greater happiness” and (even worse) “for God’s glory”?

At these times, when so many Catholics in our country are raising questions regarding the place of the Church and relevance of the Vatican in their lives, it would seem that such sentiments as were expressed in the Sunday Letter only emphasise the separation of the teachers and hierarchy of our church from the real world.

Paul McCarthy

Currabinny

Co Cork