Year of MercyThere is no need for Eileen Richardson (Letters, 30 January) to feel that the Year of Mercy is an embarrassment.  Surely, the point is to start the process of a change in attitude from the clergy as a whole to all the problems she mentions. I have a gay son, with a partner, who has left the Church because of negative pronouncements but I live in hope that in time, with a more thoughtful and merciful attitude from the Vatican, he will find his way back to a Church he has told me he loves. A change is, hopefully, only a prelude to what should be the norm in future for all problems that the People of God face in the reality of life, rather than its ideal. Pope Francis has to start somewhere and steer through a minefield of different opinions, both liberal and