Sir, - Simon W. Kennedy (November 28th) with animosity directs the attention of Archbishop Connell to the "hostility directed towards the Church" because he is "utterly and completely ashamed of the clergy, not the Church". All concerned Roman Catholics feel equally ashamed, but "let him who is without fault fire the first stone".
As a retired Catholic city solicitor, I can also testify to the beatings from priests and nuns, and, of course, parents - the cane was not spared to spoil the child! It made men of us, able to stand up to the greater blows and knocks of the football and hurling fields, without retaliating into the maiming and killing of the modern age.
I have observed the agony, regrets and apologies of Archbishop Connell for the scandals and abuses of his clergy, expressed publicly on many occasions. His address to the Mater Dei Institute showed his calibre as a church leader sorrowfully conscious of the wrongs of the past, calling on conscientious Catholics and Christians to return to the ways of the Lord and to observe His laws. Our paramount apology is to God for the violation of His laws.
As a "brother at law", may I call on my good Catholic country solicitor colleague Mr Kennedy to assist in restoring respect for the law of God, or at least for as much respect for it as we and the bench have for the law of the land. We are still bound by the provisions of our Christian Constitution, and we might observe this in the spirit as well as in the letter of the law. - Yours, etc., T. C. Gerard O'Mahony,
Serpentine Avenue, Dublin 4.