CELIBATE CATHOLIC PRIESTS ARE SCAPEGOATS  (Printed in Dom Post, Sep 18)

 

Judging by the media (Church braced for new child abuse complaints, Sept 17), you’d think children were violated almost exclusively by Catholic priests. But given that the media tell us what we want to hear, it seems that in the same way as in the Third Reich wealthy Jews were blamed for Germany’s poverty, celibate Catholic priests now make convenient scapegoats for our sex-crazed, sex-saturated society. Anne Lastman, an Australian expert and international speaker on trauma, grief and loss, states unequivocally that most children are sexually abused in their own home, most often by their fathers and grandfathers. 

Julia du Fresne
 

JOHN KERRY AND CATHOLICS’ PRAYER AND FASTING FOR SYRIA ( A letter to Dom Post, September 13)

Seems like there just might be a connection between that totally unexpected and momentous remark of John Kerry’s and its consequence – the unlikely alliance of the US and Russia – and the millions of Catholics worldwide who complied with Pope Francis’ request for prayer and fasting for Syria. As Tennyson wrote in Idylls of the King, ‘More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.’

 

Julia du Fresne