I enjoy The Tablet but am annoyed when the situation of the Catholic Church in Ireland is misrepresented (“The Catholic Church is to blame”, 23 January). The editorial’s heading is misleading. Later in the article you ask: “Was it all the fault of the Catholic Church, or of the State, or indeed of Irish society generally, especially Irish families. The answer has to be all three.”

This type of emotive headline where the Catholic Church alone is seen to be responsible for every negative situation is something I expect from the secular media, but not from an international Catholic weekly.

Your praise for Irish society in its move away from the Irish Church and “towards what they instinctively know to be attitudes of tolerance and compassion which are truer to the teachings of Jesus Christ”, is particularly galling. In the two most recent referendums in Ireland the secular establishment used these two Christian attitudes against the Church, a deceitful ploy in an attempt to pit Christian against Catholic, and of course they succeeded. It is disheartening to see you do the same, since the future of Christianity lies with the Church and not with society as you contend.