SIR – Fr Lucie-Smith is right to condemn anti-Semitism (blog at catholicherald.co.uk, April 28). However, his description of anti-Semitism as “irrational in nature” and thus a “psychosis” is unhelpful. When using medical terminology, care should be taken to ensure it is correct and appropriate.
A psychosis is not an evil but a clinical phenomenon involving any number of delusional beliefs, hallucinations and a disordered train of thought (which Fr Lucie-Smith seems to describe in analogy). While it may be frustrating trying to argue with someone holding anti-Semitic views, that does not mean they are psychotic – just stubborn.
Fr Lucie-Smith says: “We must be on our guard against the virus of anti-Semitism (for that way madness lies) and we must combat it wherever we find it.” However, were a patient to have a set of anti-Semitic beliefs as a result of a psychotic episode we would neither “combat” such beliefs nor condemn the patient (as it would be fruitless, although of course we would not agree with such beliefs). Nor would we describe them as having a “virus” (psychosis is not contagious). As Catholic doctors, we would provide compassion, sympathy and support for them and their families and treatment such as anti-psychotic medications.
Patients suffering from psychosis and their families experience profound distress, shame and embarrassment, exacerbated by the stigma of having a mental illness. We wish to stand up for these patients who, somewhat like the unborn, often do not have a voice. While it is right to condemn anti-Semitism, it is wrong to describe it as a mental illness.
Those with psychosis have an illness and they require medical attention. Those with anti-Semitic views cannot hide behind an illness model.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Matthew Doyle, Dr Joseph Nunan,
Dr Marcela Schilderman and Dr Pravin Thevathasan
By email
SIR – The Bible may seem an unexpected guide to good health, but the Seven Deadly Sins provide sound advice in helping tackle chronic long-term illnesses such as heart disease and obesity.
The Seven Deadly Sins provide a succinct and powerful seven-step programme to living a virtuous, long and healthy life.
I have worked as a GP for more than 40 years and the rise in chronic but largely preventable long-term illnesses, such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity, is huge.
Heart disease is the biggest cause of premature death in the UK while diabetes and obesity collectively affect more than 14 million people, costing the health service billions of pounds a year.
These illnesses fall like dominoes onto one another and the root cause of both is reflected in the sins of gluttony, greed and sloth. These, in turn, mirror the modern-day maladies of excessive food consumption, poor diet and lack of exercise. The problem is that we don’t see them as sinful or wrong any more, and that is a dangerous mindset irrespective of religious belief.
There are a multitude of reasons why people become sick and some – genetic predisposition, environmental factors and bad luck – are very cruel. Nevertheless, we can’t escape the fact that poor lifestyle choice is the biggest killer of all and many of us are quite literally eating ourselves to death.
Do people genuinely take their doctor’s advice on the face of stark health choices? Sometimes they do, but it often falls by the wayside, which is why a more pervading wisdom free of BMIs, blood sugar levels and lipid levels may be more effective.
It may be time for the Church to look at repackaging the lost wisdom of the sins and the flipside of their message, which is a resolutely positive and insightful one we can all benefit from.
Now, that would really provide salvation for the NHS.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Kosta Manis
Bexley
SIR – In your leading article of April 29 you state: “We will find out soon if [Francis] has persuaded Orthodox leaders that the Pope is not an enemy but an ally.” Pope Francis’s pontificate will not persuade the Orthodox en masse that the papacy is one or the other.
Francis has continued the work towards rapprochement started by his two predecessors. Across Orthodoxy you will find those who consider Catholics to be close brothers and sisters with valid orders and sacraments and would welcome full communion, all the way through to those who consider us heterodox schismatics. Certainly most Orthodox would agree with public declarations of Orthodox Churches that they wish to work with the Catholic Church closely in the fight against Western liberal morality and to jointly combat poverty and injustice.
No one expects full communion or re-union any time soon (I personally believe full communion will be re-established, but not for many decades; and no full re-union – the Orthodox and Catholic Churches will exist beside each other, like the Latin Rite and ordinariate). But practical work on the ground, in areas such as the battle against abortion and the refugee crisis, will lead to greater trust, which will lead to further work on the many thorny theological issues requiring to be resolved, such as the role of the Pope and the Filioque.
Yours faithfully,
Graeme Campbell
By email
SIR – I see the Bishop of Wrexham is among the latest to announce a radical reduction in the number of churches in his diocese (Home news, April 29). Each time I read such a report I wonder why, if the demographics are so dire or drastically reconfigured, there is not also news of a reduction in the number of Catholic schools. Is it because they can make up numbers with non-Catholics? But they still require a priest, don’t they?
Or is it because churches are to be sold off to maintain the schools sector? Surely that cannot be, as over the past few decades Catholic schools don’t seem to have produced a generation committed to their Church in such numbers as even to maintain the status quo. It would be a doubtful investment, wouldn’t it?
However, the bishop expresses the hope that some new churches will be built. Just what these are conceived to be in their built form will say a lot about what his and his diocese’s concept of an evangelising missionary Church in the 21st century is. As will how they treat the heritage significance of what they choose to dispose of, and the manner in which they do it.
Yours faithfully,
Paul Walker
Eckington, Derbyshire
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