DUPman’s‘cross’sign actofanti-Catholicism

IT is truly disturbing to read how a DUP member tried to mock an Ulster Unionist MLA by pretending to bless himself with the Sign of the Cross as he passed him by (News, October 23). The DUP man wanted to show his contempt for the MLA for having attended a civic reception for Pope Francis on his recent visit to Dublin.

This starkly highlights the pathology of anti-Catholicism: anything that can be used to insult will be used — even the most sacred and most holy Christian symbols and prayers.

The Cross is the universal symbol of Christianity, respected and revered by all authentic believers in Jesus Christ. And blessing oneself with the Sign of the Cross means invoking the Blessed Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

What sort of Protestantism sacrilegiously mocks and ridicules the Cross and the Blessed Trinity? Will there be outcry from the DUP and Free Presbyterian Church about this contempt for Jesus Christ and the Blessed Trinity? Or does anti-Catholicism trump all?

Is anti-Catholicism (not, of course, about religion at all, but a system for keeping Catholics ‘in their place at the back of the bus’) the only ‘religion’ of those, like that DUP man, who showed such contempt and disrespect?

How can the beloved community — based on equality, solidarity and respect — be built up in Northern Ireland with such contempt and awful sectarianism?

FR SEAN McMANUS President, Irish National Caucus Washington DC, USA