SEAN O'CONAILL,
Madam, - The call by the Catholic bishops for a ban on the donation of human sperm and embryos for fertilisation is based, no doubt, upon the admirable principle of respect for human life.
But what reason do we have to suppose that the bishops actually share that respect? The acid test of respect for life must surely be respect for the living - while the bishops treat their own living lay people, their "flock", with studied institutionalised contempt.
This latest statement is a classic example. Addressed over the heads of their congregations to those responsible for legislation, it emanates solely from professional theologians. It must do so, because the Catholic laity, most of them voters, have never been invited by their bishops into discussion of this or any other moral or social issue that confronts them.
The wisdom of the Church is supposed to reside solely in the heads of ordained persons; the rest of us are morons.
That this attitude actually endangers the principles the bishops say they espouse is, of course, beyond their comprehension. Given the state of relationships between them and their flock today, this latest statement is far more likely to provoke a laissez-faire than a protective attitude towards the human embryo in Irish legislation, as people are fed up to the back teeth with hierarchical power plays dressed up as piety.
Anyone studying the history of Catholicism since 1968 can reach just one conclusion: Catholic bishops prefer embryos to mature people because they epitomise the ideal Catholic congregation: they can't think or speak and therefore cannot challenge the bishops' presumption in speaking for them. - Yours, etc.,
SEAN O'CONAILL, Greenhill Road, Coleraine, Co Derry.