SIR – Fr Jerome Bertram’s article on priestly celibacy (Feature, August 19) repeats a number of details and suppositions regarding the continence of married priests in the first millennium. That this was the system for a time is true, but we do not know that this was so from the beginning and it was not the case that this was universally accepted in the Church. The Eastern Churches did not follow the Western position on this, which became the norm.
It is far from clear that the earliest Church practised this. The oft-repeated verses, such as “we have left our homes”, do not necessitate that marriages were continent at all. It is an idea read into it. The mention of “self-control” in Titus 1:8 raises the question, too. The Greek word enkratia can mean various aspects of self-control. There were 28 possible definitions in Aristotle and several in New Testament Greek. It is most likely to have meant “calm, temperate and balanced”. It need not mention anything about sexual continence.
What scant material we do have of the earliest Church suggests that wives accompanied the Apostles without any issue, with no suggestion that continence was the norm, and material from the early 2nd century suggests that any seeking celibacy or continence should seek the counsel and permission of the bishop. There is no suggestion that this is just about holy orders.
Yours faithfully,
Fr Kevin O’Donnell
Rottingdean, East Sussex
SIR – What the Ordinariate needs is time, and a connection with Britain’s past (Cover story, August 26). There is much to say and learn of the Church and its role in British history. One of those connections is Thomas Becket. The article also said that there were those that wanted a connection to Canterbury. What better example is there than a bishop that puts faith before politics, such as the saint and martyr John Fisher?
Given the state that Britain is presently in, falling back upon its history, its icons and sense of national identity would also add to the Ordinariate.
I do not think that the Personal Ordinariate will disappear, but, with effort, a connection to Britain’s past and communicating its positive future it will succeed.
Yours faithfully,
JP Moskal
West Chicago, Illinois
SIR – Amy-Jo Crowley’s timely article (Feature, August 19) argues the case for the Church to take a lead in supporting credit unions and ways of providing advice on debt and money, to protect financially vulnerable and excluded people from exploitation while encouraging personal financial prudence. She suggests a possible lack of active engagement by the Church to date.
Following Archbishop Justin Welby’s campaign against payday loans (“War on Wonga”), work by the Church of England in this area seems to be quite well advanced and wide-ranging. The Just Finance Foundation now sponsors various initiatives, and makes available guidance and learning materials, to help churches that want to get involved in advising on debt and widening people’s access to credit unions.
In seeking to serve the common good in economic life, perhaps the Catholic Church might also find it helpful to draw on some of these existing practical responses to the problem of debt.
Yours faithfully,
Andrew Todd
Worthing, West Sussex
SIR – I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments about the logic of working to ensure that Muslims and their religious beliefs be integrated and tolerated amid our Christian society (Letters, August 26). But is there not a stark and very relevant reality which stares us in the face which we almost always fail to also highlight? I refer to the absolute intolerance and frequent condemnation of any non-Islamic religious beliefs in most countries where Islam is the predominant religion.
We generously allow all religions to be practised in Britain, and do not object to the erection of mosques, temples and other places of non-Christian worship, but in most Islamic nations the building of a Christian church is simply not permitted.
There should be more openness about the absence of reciprocal tolerance in countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as we continue the laudable process of welcoming their religious values and practices on our little island.
Yours faithfully,
Anthony J Burnet
East Saltoun, East Lothian
SIR – Thank you for Fr Pittam’s timely article on how relationships between priests and people are under strain (August 12). He portrays well the vulnerability of rural parishes at this time, a topic to which those attending the annual National Conference for Rural Catholics regularly return.
Attendees this year asked specifically for a bishop to address the next conference (February 13-15, 2017, in Salisbury) on the subject of “The Bishops, Rural Parishes and Clergy Numbers”. The Bishop of Portsmouth has consented to grasp the nettle.
Yours faithfully,
Fr Robert Miller
Tisbury, Wiltshire
SIR – The parish of Aberystwyth finds itself in a regrettable situation after four years without a church (Letters, August 26).
The diocese has constantly tried to portray St Winefride’s as a building of insignificance with little historical, cultural or aesthetic attributes. It downplays the significant fact that St Winefride’s is of importance as the first Catholic church to be built (in 1874) in Mid Wales since the Reformation.
The church is a centre of Welsh Catholicism and the Welsh translation of the Order of the Mass and the first collection of Welsh Catholic hymns originated there. The Welsh literary giant J Saunders Lewis attended the church between 1938 and 1952 and taught at St Mary’s College, which had been established as a seminary with particular emphasis on the Welsh language. The interior of the church is also of significance, the high altar being a fine example of the Gothic Revival.
By comparison, the derelict Welsh Martyrs, Penparcau, which was opened in October 1970, offers little. The stark reality is that it is a typically poorly built late 1960s construction which does not merit expenditure of some £360,000 to bring it back into use.
It would be far better to spend just some of that money refurbishing St Winefride’s so that, once more, Aberystwyth can have a Catholic church in a town centre location of which it can be proud. Common sense needs to prevail.
Yours faithfully,
David Gorman
Preston, Lancashire
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