SIR – The most recurrent themes in your columns are those questions regarding married priests, celibacy and the ordination of women; to which must now be added issues raised by the LGBT movement. So we have writers who are either in favour or against any changes to the present practices of the Church. In addition, there is a growing and influential body of clergy who not only challenge Church teachings but also actively pursue their own line, one example being the decision of certain German bishops to administer Communion to non-Catholic spouses and to divorced and remarried Catholics.
Why is it that nothing is heard of the third way whereby those proponents of change could have their views satisfied? That is, the option of joining any number of Anglican churches, or any of their many offshoots, where such changes are readily accepted and in practice already.
This would indeed complete the circle, as the Protestant Reformation had as its bulwark the rejection of papal primacy and an emphasis on a personal interpretation of the Scriptures. Surely that is what the proponents of change are basically seeking.
Tim Ryan
Surbiton, Surrey
SIR – The letter of Allan Mallinson about the Kaiser (February 1) was not entirely accurate. I quote from Jonathan Rose’s book as follows: “Churchill insists that Wilhelm [the Kaiser] never wanted to play his assigned part, and certainly lacked the talent for it. It was the generals, admirals, bankers, diplomats, professors and colonialists who pressed him to assume the role of ‘warrior-king’ … He assumed with obvious relief that the Serbian response to Austria’s ultimatum would … render war unnecessary, but real power lay with the General Staff which led Germany into catastrophe … In 1918 some die-hard officers urged the Kaiser to lead one last suicide attack but he was humane enough to end the war anticlimactically. He would not sacrifice the lives of more brave men merely to make a setting for his own exit.”
These remarks of Churchill go against the popular image, but he was a Cabinet minister at the time and his insights can scarcely be ignored. Perhaps instead of attacking the Kaiser’s memory in a Catholic magazine we should pray for the repose of his soul.
Fr Damian Grimes MHM
Formby, Merseyside
SIR – Your correspondent Allan Mallinson challenges the view that the Kaiser was not solely or principally the instigator of the First World War – and should therefore have faced trial.
In fact, the events which led to the war began with the unilateral Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1909. This offended the Russians and outraged the Serbs, who responded by initiating a campaign of sowing discontent among the minorities in the empire, which culminated in the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, with the connivance of Serbian military intelligence.
This event provided the Austro-Hungarian government with an excuse to crush Serbia once and for all, and prompted it to issue an ultimatum which it knew the Serbs would not accept.
Russia, Serbia’s ally and protector, was also looking for a pretext for war against Austria-Hungary, to avenge the Bosnian humiliation (which she had been unable to prevent, owing to her weakness following the revolution of 1905 and the loss of the war with Japan).
The Russians had a reason for wanting war against Germany’s ally, Turkey, too: they desired to secure control of Constantinople and the Straits, which they had failed to win in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-8.
The Tsar did not want war, but he was a weak ruler and allowed himself to be dragged into it by the Russian military establishment, with the active support of his own foreign minister, Sergey Sazonov.
Nor did the Kaiser want war; he attempted to avoid it by responding positively to a personal approach from his cousin, the Tsar, but like the latter he was dragged into the war by his military establishment, dominated by the Junkers aristocracy who had been planning for a pre-emptive war against France for the previous 40 years, and were determined not to let the opportunity slip.
No doubt the Kaiser bore a share of the guilt for the outbreak of the war, but it was only a share, and a relatively minor one at that. If we are looking for individuals to blame, much greater guilt attaches to Dragutin Dimitrijević, head of Serbian military intelligence; Leopold Berchtold, Austrian foreign minister; and Russia’s Sazonov.
Philip Goddard
London SE19
SIR – The Pope’s recent discourse on world faiths (Week in Review, February 8) is to be welcomed on the level of fraternity and seeing the good in holy people. However, it raises a number of questions. God Almighty may have sowed a seed of something deeply religious in all human hearts and this is clearly manifested in other faiths, but are all world faiths and their formulations and some of their dubious practices part of God’s providence? Does this extend to the cults whose founders have been fanatics?
The Holy Father’s observations render slightly embarrassing the question of the former Archbishop of Birmingham, Maurice Couvre de Murville, to the late Dr Mary Hall, the interfaith pioneer and founder of the city’s Multi-Faith Resources Unit, set up with Vatican approval: “What are you going to do about conversion?”
Bernard Cartwright
Stourbridge, West Midlands
SIR – Regarding the debate about the phrase in the Lord’s Prayer, “lead us not into temptation” (Letters, February 1), it is well to remember that these were Our Lord’s words, and the same Jesus who taught them to His disciples was Himself tempted in the desert before the beginning of His public ministry.
There, Satan began by offering the only temptation likely to succeed with a good man – doing even more good, and with the apparent sanction of Scripture; however, it would have meant Jesus using His supernatural powers to compel belief rather than inviting it, thus making a nonsense of freely willed faith. Inevitably it led to the temptation to worship Satan which, needless to say, would have meant going against His Father’s will.
The Bible does not say whether God the Father led Jesus into temptation, but He always did His Father’s will, and emerged from the temptation stronger than ever to leave us with the lesson that if God leads us into temptation He will also lead us out of it.
Ann Farmer
Woodford Green, Essex
SIR – Deal Hudson (US Arts, February 8) notes that Ken Russell’s The Devils is badly misunderstood. Before he became known as an edgy director, Russell converted to Catholicism and made short films about the Poor Clares and Lourdes.
Peter Mischler
Tulsa, Oklahoma
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