Madam, - Hugo Brady Brown (August 30th), commenting on the assignment of Merrion Road parish to Opus Dei, says that "some of the most powerful and influential people in Ireland will now come under the direct care of this socially conservative and highly controversial organisation".
I wonder how much of his knowledge of Opus Dei comes from the Da Vinci Code. He seems to be under the illusion that all those who attend Merrion Road church - and by extension, every other church - are under the spell of the clergy and have no minds of their own.
Such shallow thinking is not worthy of publication. - Yours, etc,
LUKE CAHILL,
Stillorgan Road,
Foxrock,
Dublin 18.
Madam, - Hugo Brady Brown (August 30th) questions the handing over by the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, of the affluent Merrion Road parish of Our Lady Queen of Peace. He asks, maybe with tongue in cheek, why the order wasn't given a north inner-city parish or one in the estates of West Dublin.
Opus Dei, from its foundations in fascist Spain, has always aimed to recruit Catholics from wealthy, well-educated backgrounds to be moulded into being compliant and unquestioning servants. It is now in the vanguard of the "restoration" movement, led by Pope Benedict, to bring back pre-Vatican-II liturgy where the Latin Mass, the reception of Communion on the tongue and no handshakes at the "sign of peace" will become the norm.
Catholic people in the Archdiocese of Dublin have every right to be informed and consulted before a parish is handed over to the Opus Dei prelature. - Yours, etc,
BRENDAN BUTLER,
The Moorings,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.