an open letter to the editor and staff of the bankrupt irish times newspaper

 

Sirs.

Imagine my bemusement on reading one of your recent editions to find your staffers rather gleefully engaged in the serious work of trying to vilify the reputation Werenfried Van Straaten.

You had waited 17 years after his death to begin your attempts to ruin him.

Another posthumous assassination attempt on a Catholic priest by the heroes of the Irish Times.

Classy.

Your slander consisted in its entirety of the unquestioning uncritical repetition of an unverified suggestion that in 1973 Werenfried made a pass at a woman.

You deemed this unverified claim about Werenfried to which no one has so far been willing to publically set their name, as attempted rape.

That's some investigation right there.

That's some level of journalism.

That's some show trial.

Never reported to the police. Never professionally investigated. Anonymously sourced. The man being impugned has been dead 17 years. And the unspecified unverifiable anonymous claim has been posited back on some undetermined date in 1973.

Classy, classy, classy, classy Irish Times.

Who needs discernment, fairness or due process when we've got you, eh!

I ask you.

If this is to be the standard, who can stand?

What I found most curious in your reportage was the lack of anything beyond superficial knowledge about the life of Werenfried Van Straaten as evinced by your writers and editorial staff.

Although you were all clearly viscerally intent on  murdering him from beyond the grave, ie destroying his name, his historic legacy and his reputation, you hardly seemed to know who he was.

You knew he was a priest of the Catholic Church alright and that was enough for you.

That was, as per your usual MO, sufficient for you to target him for reputational destruction.

Let me tell you who Werenfried Van Straaten was.

After World War Two, a devastated Europe was full of bombed out cities, ruined factories, smashed roads, and desolate fields, with millions of displaced  starving people wandering around looking for something to eat and somewhere to sleep.

Werenfried Van Straaten went down on the streets and fed them

That is who he was.

Now tell me.

Who are you.

James Healy