Hoban on Cullinan

Fr Brendan Hoban's letter in The Irish Times today.

Sir, – In reference to Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan and the HPC vaccine, David Harte comments that “a person in a position of respect questioning the opinion of qualified medical personnel without any relevant qualifications is not good”, and Dr Niall Breen suggests that the bishop’s comments “were at best ill-advised and at worst extremely ignorant” (September 28).

Both are surely correct. What needs to be said too is that such interventions are a source of excruciating embarrassment to Catholics who, after all that has happened, have to witness Catholic bishops still imagining that their position confers knowledge and expertise on issues clearly beyond their competence. – Yours, etc,