‘As a Protestant I was totally embarrassed by diatribe’

Can I at the outset say how embarrassed I was to read Rev David Creane’s diatribe against the decision by unionist leaders to attend the funeral of Constable Ronan Kerr.

Rev Creane is, of course, entitled to put his point of view but I also feel I have the right to stand up for the silent majority in this country fed up to the back teeth with attitudes that were surely out of date a century ago.

I have attended my share of Catholic Masses and have not yet burst into flame or been struck down by lightning.

I would go as far as to say the services share more in common in the layman’s eye than would separate them.

Indeed that commonality could be summed up in this simple verse: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

I would challenge any professing Christian to argue with that simple tenet of faith.

The sight of the two unionist leaders attending a mass was an important milestone but why did it take the murder of a policeman who happened to be a Catholic to bring that about?

We still have lessons to learn about mutual respect in this country, we would appear to be learning but we could all do better.

And don’t even get me started on churlish reactions to the Queen visiting Ireland!