Sir: May one who is also a Catholic Anglican say
how much he agrees with the greater part of Angus Maude's article
(30 May). But there is one paragraph therein which I would venture to challenge because it seems to me to prove an essential distinction between faith and superstition. It is that in which he envisages the 'down- grading' of 'favourite saints' on the curious ground that 'belief in a spiritual presence deepens and sustains faith and causes the worshipper to feel nearer to God.'
Surely before our faith in a particular 'spiritual presence' can be deepened we re- quire assurance that our 'favourite saint' has had an actual physical existence. I myself believe that the move towards realism in this matter has been not only a courageous but a salutary decision on the part of the Vatican and that much good should flow from it. Faith may in- deed be 'the substance of things hoped for', but it cannot be equated with the definition of the—probably mythical—schoolboy that it is 'believing what you know ain t true'. Certainly the 'leap of faith' is required of us, but we must be assured of the security of the ground from which we take off.
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