Sir: Sir Ferdinand Mount and your revered chairman's splendid counterblast
('Ridicu- lous, febrile, lurid, ludicrous', 26 February) ignore mundane, but not negligible, impli- cations of papal rather than Anglican catholicism. No one need expect ardent proselytism or inquisition from a papal church in this country; but foreign nomina- tion of bishops and priests, increased pres- sure on the more tedious social questions, and perhaps a departure from the sober decorum of the great English churches might all, in due course, be expected.
On a lesser point, Mr Black's denial of the claim of papal infallibility is true, surely, only when the Pope is not speaking ex cathedra. When he is, it is generally uncontroversial, or too obscure, to be significant; but not always.
Henry VIII was not only a good theolo- gian, but a good king of England.
David Thompson
Saunders, Church Street, Coggeshall, Essex
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