31 OCTOBER 1931, Page 17

ROMAN CATHOLICS AND THE LORD'S PRAYER

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,— I read, with great astonishment, the article called The Ostler," by Owen Tweedy, in the Spectator of September 26th. There I learnt that Catholics do not say the Lord's Prayer in English.

If Mr. Tweedy will send me his address I will gladly forward him a twopenny Catholic Catechism and a Simple Prayer Book which is used in all our schools. In the Prayer Book he will observe, the first prayer is the Lord's Prayer—in English. In the Catechism he will find Questions 144 to 157 are an analysis of the Lord's Prayer, which would probably be useful to him.

A Catholic child at the age of five, unable to say the Lord's Prayer and other simple prayers, is considered to have neglect- ful parents. Mr. Tweedy would probably be surprised at the amount Catholic children learn in their own language of the Bible, their prayers and Christian doctrine in the primary schools.

The ostler he met was probably of the type of which I met an excellent sample this summer. After sheltering gratis a camping party of some thirty boys in a Catholic Hall for practically a week one of the adults in charge rounded off his patronizing praise for Catholics in this way. " Mind you, 1 don't 'old with no denominations, I've been in France and seen all sorts. But mind you when I wants 'elp I goes to them all—rabbis, fathers, parsons and all—whichever is most