LETTERS Dawkins anathematised
Sir: Richard Dawkins' response to Paul Johnson's article (Letters, 19 February) is characterised by those simultaneous attacks of bile and apoplexy which always appear to afflict him at the mention of the Almighty's name. In an earlier age exorcism might have been thought the appropriate response, now one must pray and cause Masses to be offered for his troubled soul, although it is hard to resist an uncharitable amusement at the rage which shakes the zoologist's frame.
However, one misapprehension, arising no doubt from an ignorance of the Catholic Church pardonable in an atheist, should be corrected. He opines that Mr Johnson's mind has been made up for him by an 'elderly Pole . . . evidently less well educat- ed (with) no qualifications', a reference presumably to His Holiness Pope John Paul II, intended to belittle him by third- form- level sarcasm.
Mr Johnson is, of course, erudite and educated, but Dr Dawkins should note that the Pope is a graduate of a university with a pedigree as ancient as his, has held Chairs at two universities and a professorship at one. Nor does he decree what the faithful believe; the magisterium of the Church is derived from the gospels, the fathers of the Church and successive occupants of the see of Peter. The present Pope adds to the informed conscience of members of the Church through encyclicals on specific aspects of doctrine which display a wisdom and compassion which Dr Dawkins might care to emulate.
Dominic Moseley 3 Westminster Gardens, Marsham Street, London SWI
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