Sir, - I was not a little shocked by your castigating Editorial (March 4th) on Archbishop Connell's commentary on the encyclical Humanae Vitae, delivered in Maynooth College recently. But at least you did admit that His Grace was doing nothing more than his duty as the Catholic archbishop of Ireland's largest diocese and Primate of Ireland.
Indeed, the archbishop did nothing more than list the evils foretold in the prophetic encyclical that have now, alas, come to this country due to the disregard for its teaching. I, for one, am glad that he had taken down the encyclical from the shelf on which it was conveniently placed out of the way, blown the dust off it and made us realise the importance and the necessity of promoting its content.
Strange as it may seem, the archbishop has with him in doing this a rather unexpected bedfellow in the person of the once notorious abortionist Dr Bernard Nathanson, who converted to the defence of the unborn due to his professional honesty as a foetologist in recognising the humanity of the child in the womb from the moment of conception.
I had the privilege of listening to Dr Nathanson at a Human Life International Conference in Killiney in 1996. The subject of his talk was the possibility of human cloning, now being experimented on. It was then that he took from his breast pocket a little booklet and held it up in dramatic fashion before the audience with the appeal: "There is only one thing that can save us from this hideous prospect and it is this." The little booklet was none other than the celebrated encyclical of Pope Paul VI - Humanae Vitae. - Yours, etc., Fr Placid C. Nolan, OP,
Holy Cross Priory, Tralee, Co Kerry.