THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN IRELAND. [To the Editor of
the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—I have just read the comments in your issue of December 80th, 1922, on the present position of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland and on the remarkable collapse of its authority there. After several months passed recently in Ireland I can testify to the truth of your statements. The eyes of the people have been opened to the moral cowardice of their priests and they despise them and flout their authority accordingly. Only a fortnight ago the priest of a large parish in County Leitrim, where looting and robbery are rife, said to me, " I have no authority now, I can do nothing with the people, for they mind nothing that I say to them. My heart is broken." These remarks were repeated to a very intelligent Roman Catholic tradesman, whose instant and bitter retort was, " The priests did it for themselves, so now they have only themselves to blame. What can they say now, for NI hat did they say against murder when it first began ? " The priests, in fact, presumed too far on the ignorance and lack of logic of their parishioners, and it never occurred to them that the time might come when their people would confront them with their own moral inconsistencies, as is the case to-day.
' But not only has ecclesiastical authority in Ireland been shattered—Christianity itself has, alas, been practically obliterated amongst the Roman Catholic masses by the actions of the priests themselves. They have been caught in their own toils, they have brought about their own moral downfall, and from highest to lowest—from the Cardinal to the curate—well do they know it.—I am, Sir, &c., AN IRISH LOYALIST.
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