Church of the deaf Sir: The facts set out in
Mr Stuart Reid's article in your issue of 21 February in regard to the actions of the Pope and the World Council of Churches towards communism admit of an explanation that is at once simple and sinister. These highly placed ecclesiastics calculate that communism will conquer the world, and they hope (poor fools) that if they support marxism now they will be well treated when the expected take-over happens, whereas in fact if—quod absitl—their calculation is correct they will quickly be reduced to the same state of abject subservience as that of
the Russian Patriarchs, but with this difference, that the Patriarchs did not choose their fate, whereas these Western ecclesiastics will be reaping the reward of their own cynicism and folly.
There is, I believe, an old saying at the Vatican that the first act of ecclesiastical diplomacy was St Peter's first denial of Christ, and I have seen attributed to Cardinal Vyshinsky a more modern saying that in Poland there is the Church of silence, but at the Vatican there is the Church of the deaf.
Meanwhile, any Christian of right-wing sympathies will do well to keep clear of the administrative side of his church.
Lawrence Travers Savage Club, 9 Fitzmaurice Place, Berkeley Square, London W1
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