LETTERS
Pillar of orthodoxy
Sir: `Quae peior mors animae quam liber- tas erroris' — the words are St Augustine's — so, perhaps, Mr Patrick Marnham's otherwise splendid article (The Pope reas- serts his power,' 11 May) should not be allowed to pass uncorrected.
Archbishop Lefebvre has never been excommunicated. Indeed, how could he have been? On what possible grounds could this pillar of orthodoxy even be accused, let alone found guilty? On what grounds has he been accused? Tell us; justice demands it. Again, that he was driven not entirely unwillingly to defiance is not a fact but an opinion, and an erroneous one at that, since all the known evidence points to the very opposite.
Neither is it true that we, whom Mr Marnham is pleased to call Catholic Tradi- tionalists but who are, in truth, just Catho- lics, are a `small unhappy rump who preferred the old ways'. We do not choose the Roman Mass (`Tridentine' is a pejora- tive term, dreamt up by the progressive opposition who were perfectly well aware, though most of their fellow Catholics were not, that the origins of the Mass so described were not in Trent but in Rome, more than a thousand years earlier. As Newman said: `Adroitness in debate is the very life and weapon of heresy'). We do not choose the Roman Mass just because it is hallowed by age and ancient custom but because, unlike its unworthy successor, (the creation of men of no taste and little faith), it enshrines with brilliant clarity the truths of our Faith. If you will permit me to quote Archbishop Lefebvre: `Truth alone Is the foundation of right.'
R.F.A. Wood
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