Madam, – John J McGauran (December 5th) has a point. The Reform Group has lobbied for the public service broadcaster, RTÉ, to remove, or replace, the Angelus bell.
All of our politicians have been quiescent in the face of this sectarian act and the editor of RTÉ’s religious programmes seems to think the Angelus bell is acceptable to all religions and none. It is not.
As far as I can glean, no other public service broadcaster in the world relays this prayer of the Roman Catholic church. It is not a prayer of any other religious denomination. The last public service broadcaster to relay it was in Franco’s fascist Spain.
I suggest it should be stopped, not because of anything to do with the current scandal involving the clerical sexual abuse of children, which clearly is unrelated, but because our State is obligated to remain neutral in such matters having signed up to the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. – Yours, etc,