Madam, - I fear Seán Ó Conaill's view that "the spread of à la carte Catholicism is but a response to the haute cuisine variety that dominated for centuries" (Rite and Reason, July 25th) is expressed in mixed imagery that somewhat detracts from the point of his cookery analogy.
As he no doubt knows, "à la carte" refers to a bill of fare ordered as separately priced items from a menu, "haute cuisine" or otherwise. The contrasting situation, "table d'hôte", is a meal at hotel or restaurant consisting of a set menu at a fixed price.
Gathered together as a believing community to hear his word proclaimed and to share at the Lord's table, we are (or ought to be) more nearly in the "table d'hôte" situation.
Those who lament the rise of "à la carte Catholicism" are concerned with the problem of how far we can go in picking and choosing beliefs and practices that are, so to speak, to our taste, rather than subscribing whole-heartedly to the Christian story and vision that has traditionally under-pinned our Catholic faith community.
"Haute cuisine Catholicism" as described by Mr Ó Conaill, appears more like a dish he has purposefully created for the delectation of those who accuse the Catholic Church of an élitist bias and a failure to proclaim the Gospel to the poor.
A Catholicism which fails to uphold in word and deed the "equality in dignity" of all human beings is not just a "mis-identification of Catholicism" but a contradiction in terms. No Catholic, bishop or lay person, in Ireland, in Latin America, or even in Germany, can decide that social justice is off the menu. Neither can we Catholics arbitrarily choose whether or not to bother with the Petrine ministry and apostolic succession, however much the colourful (even scandalous at times) history of the Papacy might put us off.
I have no doubt Jesus of Nazareth would have found many things about the institutional aspects of our Church "very strange". He would indeed find it difficult to recognise his humble followers in what Seán Ó Conaill claims the Irish Church has itself spawned: "an Irish Catholic social élite that is now increasingly no longer Catholic"!
How true this contention is I do not have evidence at hand to judge. I would suggest that "the predicament our Irish bishops now find themselves in" is what it has always been, for bishops and faithful alike. We all have to do in memory of Him what He did at that evening meal 2,000 years ago: wash the feet of his disciples and dry them with the towel round his waist (John 13:4-5).
This service of others proves a much more demanding exercise than "early bishops eating with the poor". - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL J FOLEY, Piercestown, Wexford.