A chara, – Suppose Mayo meets Sligo again in next year’s Connacht Football Final, maybe at Pearse Stadium with a capacity crowd of 34,000. No member of the Connacht Provincial Council attends as all are busy playing golf or catching up on their paperwork. An Taoiseach attends but is busy catching up with the wonders of his new mobile phone. The Galway referee concentrates on his job and keeps in touch with his assistants throughout. What should your reporters report on?
Your report on Saturday’s Western leg of “Towards an Assembly of the Catholic Church” (Home News, October 8th) began with six men who declined the invitation to attend and ended with what the referee/chairman didn’t say, all under a headline about those episcopal absentees. The bulk of your brief report concentrated on the referee/chairman, but scarcely on anything he did or said at the meeting. Even An Taoiseach shared a 30-word paragraph with Fr Tony Flannery, as if the cover of Time wasn’t enough for one week.
A church reform assembly of 400 over six hours on an October Saturday, “predominantly attended by lay people”! A mere five words out of 190, with no hint of what those lay people said or how angry or enthusiastic they felt. Your two reporters said nothing about what had led to the Galway meeting or what it is intended to lead to.
Could your Religious Affairs and Munster correspondents give next Saturday’s Southern leg at Cork’s Radisson Blu Hotel a more informed hearing? The future of the Catholic Church will be determined by those who are willingly present rather than by those who are wilfully absent. Please concentrate on the players on the pitch and the enthusiasm of the crowd, with an appreciative word for the referee, stewards and organisers. – Is mise,