20 NOVEMBER 1953, Page 22

PRIESTS, POLITICS, AND THE POPE

SIR,—The Church of Rome has, in the course of nearly twenty centuries, numbered some very dubious characters amongst her bishops; but to Suppose, as Mr. Gedge supposes, that the Roman hierarchy, as a body, is engaged today in concerted, if incompetent, hypocrisy demands more credulity and, if he will allow me to say so, less charity than, I believe, he will easily find. The biblical average of episcopal scamps is one in twelve; and Mr. Gedge's assertion that it is now something like a hundred per cent. in the Church of which I am proud to be a member strikes me much as the Charge of the Light Brigade struck the French general. It may be magnificent controversy but it is not Christianity: for it is not true.—Yours faithfully,