Thank you Sister Eileen Linehan for your letter

The letter below appears in today's 'Irish Times'.

When this blogger saw that it was a letter written by a religious sister the immediate thought that sprang to mind was that the letter would be sympathetic to Fr Flannery. It certainly was not going to be a letter admonishing Fr Flannery for criticising the new Missal.

Another clear example of how, more than ever, our church needs the wisdom and kindness of women. Their common sense too.

A chara, – Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s I have vivid memories of accompanying my mother to the annual parish “mission”. I was too young to comprehend what was being preached. What I do remember is hundreds of women leaving the church in good spirits (the men had a separate week). They had had the good news of the Gospel broken for them and their dignity reaffirmed by Fr Tony Flannery and his retreat team.

As a religious sister for almost 40 years, it saddens me greatly to see good people such as Fr Flannery and many others silenced by our beloved church. I say “many” because, although only a few have been canonically silenced, hundreds (if not thousands) of earnest Irish Catholics remain silent for fear of the repercussions of speaking their truth.

Wouldn’t it be a fitting closure to this Year of Faith if Catholic men and women, lay, cleric and religious, in their efforts to live and spread the Gospel, were free to voice their present concerns regarding the church – a church whose compassionate founder always looked for the lost one, brought back the stray, and bandaged the wounded. – Is mise,

(Sr) EILEEN LINEHAN,
Greenhills Road,
Dublin 24.