Religious icons are shared by all our main religions

REGARDING your story about religious symbols being removed from hospitals if patients requested it, (‘Church-run hospitals told to ditch holy symbols’, Irish Independent, February 28) there was an assumption in phone-in programmes that this only affected the Catholic Church. Mention was made of statues of Our Lady and crucifixes.

There are three major religions practised widely in Ireland. The symbols are accepted by the Catholic Church.

With regard to the Anglican Marian theology, it is a summation of the doctrines and beliefs of Anglicanism concerning Mary the Mother of Jesus. Anglicans believe that Jesus was both human and God, the son, the second person of the Trinity. Mary is accorded honour as the “theotokos”, a Greek term that means “Godbearer”, or “one who gives birth to God”.

The third major religion is the Muslim faith. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is venerated in Islam. She is the most important and righteous woman in Islam. She is the only woman mentioned by name in the Koran. The Koran describes her as “Saint Mary, the Holy Virgin, the purified, the exalted, mother of Jesus and keeper of chastity”.

Jesus in the Muslim faith is understood to be the penultimate prophet and messenger of God, sent to guide with a new revelation, the Gospel. He is mentioned 25 times in the Koran and is found in 93 verses with various titles attached, such as “son of Mary”.

The Government should be careful not to alienate our minority religions by off-the-cuff statements about religious iconography.

Hugh Duffy

Cleggan, Co Galway