Letters
Alcohol and the Church
Sir: I am an occasional commuter to Lon- don. On my return journey to rural Sussex, I sometimes purchase your periodical ex- pecting thereby to be suitably entertained, informed, and otherwise brought up to date on subjects other than my everyday fare. Normally this purpose is admirably fulfill- ed, but alas not so in your issue of 30 January, when I read Auberon Waugh's piece on the 'state of the churches'.
Auberon Waugh takes issue with the Roman Catholic bishops in this country. First of all he berates a bishop for stating that the Catholic religion does not condemn the use of alcohol. What the bishop said is in fact true ('Take a little wine for your health's sake' — see St Paul, 1 Timothy 5:23). He goes on to say that the Catholic Church has always condemned deliberate alcoholic intoxication, a statement which is also true: 'Do not drug yourselves with wine, this is simply dissipation' (see Ephe- sians 5:18). In other words, Mr Waugh equates the use of alcohol and alcoholic in- toxication, and thereby distorts and ob- fuscates the meaning of an important moral principle, i.e. `abuses non to/lit usus', (the abuse of something should not prevent its proper use). This is neither good theology nor good journalism. Mr Waugh goes on to assert that the Catholic Church in England is becoming a focus for untruth and absur- dity rather than a focus for charity and truth — and then states that it would be too tedious for him to expound his reasons for reaching this conclusion. I descended at my rural station feeling, again like St Paul, that I would prefer to fight 'not beating the air' (1 Corinthians 9:27). There is nothing to answer because nothing reasonable or worthwhile has been said. Who is 'muddled', 'demoralised' and wrong-headed'?!
Cormac Murphy-O'Connor
Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Saint Joseph's Hall, Storrington, Pulborough, Sussex
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