Sir, – Eamon Gilmore, in the article by Patsy McGarry (Home News, October 25th) states that the Government has not invited and does not intend to invite Pope Benedict to Ireland next year for the Eucharistic Congress.
As a daily Mass-goer and a theologian, I would like to remind Mr Gilmore, Enda Kenny and the Government of our country, that the “silent majority” of the people on this island are Catholic and they would love to see Pope Benedict attend the Eucharistic Congress in June next year. Furthermore, when Mr Kenny got his speech writer to stick his knife into Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church recently, we the silent majority also felt the pain. Over one million people saw Pope John Paul II in the Phoenix Park in 1979 and I have no doubt that the same number would attend again next year if he were invited.
With half our country suffering from depression and more people than ever before committing suicide due to the continuous daily drip-drop of bad news by RTÉ and some of the media: surely this would be the perfect opportunity to rebuild our great country, our church and our people. This could be the spark needed to ignite our people and get our great country up off its knees and running again. – Yours, etc,