SIR – Although I am not as educated in the ways of the Church as some of your contributors clearly are, I nevertheless try to be the best Catholic I can, but all too often fall short of this ideal. There may well be good theological reasons why clarification on the disposal of ashes of the dead has been brought into the public spotlight but frankly I find the document intrusive and hurtful.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who presented the text, says that to scatter or store the ashes in anywhere other than an approved sacred place gives the appearance of pantheism, naturalism or nihilism. But I do not even know what these words mean. Nor, I suspect, do many of my contemporaries. He also says that to store or scatter the ashes would deprive the whole Christian community of remembering the dead, and I say most definitely that it would not.
I sometimes wonder if those who talk in the lofty and seemingly eloquent ways I have mentioned actually have any understanding of how people like myself live. I am in my 70th year now and know many who have lost their loved ones after 40 or 50 years of marriage. They keep or scatter the ashes not because of any New Age thinking but out of their love for the departed. I am dismayed by Cardinal Müller’s edict.
Yours faithfully,
Peter Regelous
Witham, Essex
SIR – As the grandfather of two Down’s syndrome girls, it was with more than usual interest that I read Madeleine Teahan’s article on the abortion lobby (October 14). She referred to actress Sally Phillips’s excellent BBC documentary in support of Down’s children.
While acknowledging the challenges associated with the development of Down’s babies, I do pray that the new non-evasive tests which will detect Down’s syndrome in the womb do not result in Down’s babies ceasing to be born. I also dread where selective breeding will take us.
In my own journey into God I was confused in his divine purpose of the gift of two Down’s girls, but I greatly rejoice in the love that my two granddaughters have brought to our community.
Yours faithfully,
James Murphy
By email
SIR – In your leading article of October 21, you write that “Catholic artists are thin on the ground”. Perhaps your readers will know of the Society of Catholic Artists (catholicartists.co.uk), which was founded 1929.
As a member I personally feel that we are already an army of artists working in the service of the Church and that we are prepared to interpret, with the clergy, those aspects of the Gospel that they need to put forward.
If art means skill, then our job is to create quality work to support the Word, to show strong images about Christ as Man and God, and to make what is needed.
I think the power of the image is not only presented through straight illustration, but becomes even more significant through the mood, conviction and holiness of the Catholic artist.
To quote your last sentence, “Some direction from the Church’s Magisterium on this important topic – the role of art in the modern world – would be useful.” Magisterium, your army stands ready.
Yours faithfully,
John Armstrong
Portslade, East Sussex
SIR – Delushka De Silva and Mary’s Turnarounds deserves sympathy and praise for their defence of the Good Counsel Network and their witness for life, the fruit of their own bitter experiences of abortion (Letter, October 28).
They are right, too, to warn against proposed “buffer zones” that will protect abortion clinics’ profits by preventing potential clients from being offered humane alternatives to abortion – the help that those with unplanned pregnancies assume they will get from abortion clinics but do not.
Reports of scandals, including the gruesome Kermit Gosnell case and the Planned Parenthood foetal body-parts trade, as well as pro-life material, all circulating on the internet, is turning public opinion against abortion; moreover, a case brought against Abort 67 campaigners for displaying explicit depictions of abortion outside clinics failed on freedom of speech grounds, as would cases brought against anyone praying or offering help, because pro-life criticisms are based on scientific facts, and so far it has not been ruled illegal to offer people help.
The abortion advocates’ answer is to bring in laws to introduce “buffer zones” to combat alleged harassment, for which there is no evidence whatsoever, with the help of a compliant pro-abortion media hysterically warning about restricting “abortion rights” without actually discussing the awkward detail of what abortion actually is.
The plan betrays not triumphalism but desperation and it should be vulnerable to attack on the basis of the right to freedom of expression; but we cannot afford to be complacent.
Yours faithfully,
Ann Farmer (Mrs)
Woodford Green, Essex
SIR – The Prime Minister, Theresa May, must put aside the “bargaining counter” aspect of our immigration policy, in particular vis-à-vis our Polish residents, and pledge, unilaterally, that these persons are welcome to stay in perpetuity in this country. We must act properly without regard to how some mainland EU countries might treat their British residents after Brexit.
With Polish migrants this is not just the right thing to do, it is also the sensible thing, for it is precisely persons like these young, educated and well brought-up new migrants that an ageing native Britain badly needs.
Poles should be especially welcome to Catholics because most also bring with them a more firm commitment to their religion. We should be grateful for the gift, and fearful of them leaving. The problem of undercutting British workers in accepting lower-paid work is a separate issue with its own resolution.
Polish soldiers, sailors and airmen – some 200,000 of them – contributed massively to the Allied effort during World War II, and the RAF’s Polish 303 Squadron was unequalled in its fearless efficiency. The invaluable work of Polish mathematicians at Bletchley Park is still not widely known.
In the late 1940s a Polish veteran of that war, a neighbour in Scotland, who used to repair broken-down electric irons and wirelesses from his modest home, later opened multiple large shops in Lanarkshire.
The Poles have a long and proud history in Britain and these young migrants should not feel their tenure here is in any way threatened.
Yours faithfully,
Francis Reilly
Orpington, Kent
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