Rev Gray’s bigoted diatribe an outrage

REV John Gray’s remarks on a possible visit by Pope Francis to the North of Ireland (Write Back, May 9) are absolutely disgraceful; his comments about a memorial to those murdered in Enniskillen on Remembrance Day 1987 despicable.

The hurt and grief of families is understandable, and there are genuine problems about the appropriate situating of a permanent memorial.

For Rev Gray, however, to accuse the Catholic Church of “dishonouring” those murdered by the IRA bomb is simply a projection of his own anti-Catholic views. Likewise his attempt to use the scandal of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church to justify his jaundiced views.

The pain caused by sexual abuse of the young is prevalent in every strata of society — secular and religious. Sexual abusers are to be found in all Christian denominations.

If the Pope comes North, the vast majority of Christians — Catholic and Protestant — will welcome him.

The bitter hearts and minds of people like Rev Gray are not representative of the greater number of the citizens of Northern Ireland.

Goodness and decency will always prevail over contempt.

FR PATRICK McCAFFERTY Corpus Christi Parish, Belfast