Sir, - Rev Michael Manning (June 28th), asks the question: "How could the Catholic Church, which believes, as an article of faith, that after the consecration there is present on the alter the true Body of Christ and the true Blood of Christ, share the Eucharist with those who don't believe this?"
May I answer his question by asking another?
A Swiss lady, her husband and their three children, all practising Protestants, were in Ireland at Easter 1996. They attended the Easter Vigil Mass with an elderly Irish gentleman. When Communion time came, the lady asked the man "Can we go up to receive Communion?". The elderly man (who happened to have been almost a daily communicant for over 50 years) answered: "Of course you can." They did. And then they knelt quietly and prayed to God.
My question to Rev. Manning: Do you believe that the omnipotent, loving God rejects this act of devotion?
I have come to the sad conclusion that the religions are driving people away from God. - Yours, etc.,
Brian Rush, Greystones, Co Wicklow.