Sir, – Alan Whelan (September 22nd) may be right that the arrival of priests from Africa and India will bring an "evangelical spirit" to Irish parishes.
However, attached to that “evangelical spirit” may be toxic homophobic teachings. Africa and, to a lesser extent, India are currently hotbeds of homophobia. The most recent Pew Research report showed that in Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya, up to 98 per cent of those polled expressed zero tolerance to homosexuality.
In many African countries and India, from which many of our priests are proposed to come to fill our churches, draconian laws are in place to persecute the local LGBTQ community.
The Christian churches in Africa and India have exhibited a deafening silence on these laws – and the rampant homophobia these laws have released and which have led to the beating, abuse and murder of many gay people. – Yours, etc,
EUGENE MacDONAGH,
Waterford.