I am sorry that poor old John Monaghan (Tuesday’s letters) is so upset about Bill Donohue’s letter to the Oxford Mail, the previous day.

It must be so boring for him to set out the same abuse that we Catholics have had to endure for the past few years.

The Pope’s visit ended just this week. It was a huge success and gave a lot of spiritual comfort, not only to Catholics, but to other denominations too.

The Pope has publicly apologised for the way sex abuse allegations against priests were handled, and that they were not reported immediately to the police. He has also met victims to apologise.

If Mr Monaghan actually did some research, he would find that the Pope, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, did a lot to deal with the very few paedophile priests that were around.

Please note that a tiny minority of Catholic priests acted in this way, but, hey, it is a good stick to beat Catholics with isn’t it?

Does Mr Monaghan have written proof of what he claims in his letter? Of course he hasn’t. It is just the same old stuff that comes out whenever sad, unhappy people want to take a pop at the Catholic Church – which he blames for all his woes.

One last point I would like to make is about the issue of “blind faith”. Didn’t Jesus say to Thomas the doubter: “You believe because you have seen me. But blessed are those who haven’t seen me, but believe anyway”? (John chapter 20, verse 29.) Please let this be the last that we hear about the sex abuse scandals and the Catholic Church.

Rosemary Waters, The Willows, Culham, Abingdon