Mass exploitation

YOUR columnist Rónán Mullen describes those who sell Mass cards outside the Church as scoundrels while defending the practice inside as merely ‘an offering for the good of the Church’ (Irish Examiner, January 4).

The reality is, of course, that lay and Church ‘entrepreneurs’ have the same aim - the exploitation of vulnerable people for profit.

Mr Mullen’s claim that the sale of spiritual things for material gain has been banned from earliest times is correct only in theory. In reality, the Catholic Church runs a global business that takes in countless millions through the exploitation of superstition. His suggestion that the Church should consider breaking the link between the offering of masses and money is an indication of his uneasiness at the practice, but the chances of that happening are the same as the Pope converting to Islam.