On the boards
Sir: Robin Harris has misunderstood (Let- ters, 4 May) the point I was making about Catholic social and political theories. I was not complaining that modern popes had failed to deduce a detailed political prog- ramme from their theological principles; I was criticising those who thought that they had, or could.
Mr Harris also writes as if I were unaware of any difference between Roman Catholic ideas and Christian Democrat ones. I made it clear in my article that they were not the same thing, but that the former were the main influence on the latter.
As for what I called the Catholic obses- sion with putting worker representatives on the boards of companies, it is a matter of plain historical fact that this has been a preoccupation of Catholic (not just Christ- ian Democrat) politicians and social theor- ists over the last 50 years. Mr Harris should study the history of the French Catholic employers' organisation and the German Catholic workers' movement. The second of these, at its Katholikentag in 1949, even issued a statement (later withdrawn, but only after years of heated debate) claiming that 'the right to joint control belongs to the natural law, under the order willed by God'.
Noel Malcolm
6A Huntingdon Street, London Ni
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