Sir, – While my love for the former abbot remains undiminished, I am disappointed at Mark Patrick Hederman's soft-shoe shuffle around their lordships ("Priests told to stop calling bishops 'spineless nerds and sycophantic half-wits'", News, November 9th). It is faint praise indeed to grant that they are "more pleasant, less pompous and more approachable" than their predecessors. Big deal. It would be of greater service to our ailing church if they stemmed the dearth of vocations, ended the farcical sacramental conveyor belt and tackled the growing disrespect of the Eucharist! – Yours, etc,
Fr JOE McDONALD,
Ballyfermot, Dublin 10.
