I READ Colette Douglas Home's column with interest ("Cardinal has a chance to do some lasting good", The Herald, March 5).

Cardinal Keith O'Brien has been exposed as someone who spoke vehemently at times against aspects and aspirations of the gay community and has admitted having indulged in appropriate behaviour. He is humiliated as someone having had his resignation as an archbishop accepted (it is yet to be learned what is to happen to his position as cardinal). Colette Douglas Home advocates that this man, well into his seventies, should adopt, in these circumstances, a public profile and speak to the world against what she terms the "nonsense" of clerical celibacy.

I believe that her exhortations are unlikely to be heeded, for two main reasons.

First, Cardinal O'Brien will most likely consider that he has let down profoundly not only the Catholic Church but also its myriad of followers and that he should spend the rest of his life in quiet contemplation, seeking peace from the mental and physical anguish he is probably undergoing.

Secondly, in his advanced years it is likely that he will be dependent upon the Catholic Church to provide him not only with the mundane, yet important, board and lodging, but also with spiritual support for the remainder of his life. The church is unlikely to view with approbation the Cardinal developing a role as some kind of celebrity critic of its beliefs and practices.

Ian W Thomson,

38 Kirkintilloch Road,

Lenzie.