Madam, - I would be happy for the debate proposed by John A. Murphy (October 26th) but feel that before it happens, he should get a few more facts right. He was not invited to the Reform Conference to give a "critique of the Reform Movement" and it is wrong to claim that he gave such a critique.
He was asked to speak to the issue: "Ireland and the Commonwealth: In, Out or Inertia?" And this is what he did. He disagreed with Reform's view on the Commonwealth. He did not describe the Movement as "neurotic".
The examples he gives of promoting Ireland-UK links are unimpressive ones, in my opinion. Advising people to cherish the British side of their heritage, and singing songs, when in his view there is British cultural dominance here, and Dublin-London relations are "excellent", is not adequate. Nor does it fit in with the views of previous correspondents.
It is both ungracious and inaccurate to use the word "neurotic" to describe Reform.
It means "emotionally unstable", "obsessive", "hyper-sensitive".
I don't think any of those descriptions applied to anyone at the conference.
He also described my letter as "testy". This means "impatient or ill-humoured". This is quite simply wrong.
In referring to the Angelus John A. Murphy avoids, deliberately or not, the fact that it is sectarian. He uses phrases like "in its present diluted-theology format" and makes a subjective judgment about how innocuous it is, all of this in the context of a supposed "Reform neurosis".
I am tempted to call his "free-thinking mentality" flabbiness when it fails to recognise the difference between whatever it is he means and the more rigorous discipline of the Protestant mind.
Protestants recognise the place of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, in their belief, but in general they do not pray to her.
They do not believe that her incarnation was immaculate. They see her as having been mortal. They do not subscribe to the doctrine of her assumption.
They should be reluctant - though it is a matter of choice - to have their day twice interrupted with national prayers to her. But Protestants in Ireland - who pray to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ - are generally tolerant.
Her place in Christmas readings and in carols is not inconsistent with this factual situation about the limits on Protestant beliefs in the Virgin Mary. I am sympathetic to the widespread consent for the Angelus but it does not change the central point.
Not since Franco has it been part of any national broadcasting in Europe. - Yours, etc.,
BRUCE ARNOLD, Glenageary, Co Dublin.