THE CONTRAST BETWEEN the reaction of Dr. Heenan, Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Liver- pool, to the recent hostile demonstration against him by an Orange crowd, and that of Monsignor Fiordelli, the Bishop of Prato, to the Florence slander action, is illuminating. Dr. Heenan has made light of the scenes in which he was involved. A crowd of Catholics which gathered to see him, he admits, may have given the wrong impression : 'It is quite possible that the Protestants thought that some kind of demonstration was being staged. Probably they took alarm'; but 'I do not think there was much bitterness.' By contrast, the Bishop of Prato—and his superiors—seem to have lost their heads completely over the civil marriage issue. The Bishop, admittedly, was subjected to deliberate provocation; all the more reason, I would have thought, for him to maintain the dignity of his calling instead of descending to vulgar abuse; and the fact that he was taking his stand on a matter of principle only makes his behaviour the more astonishing. From a contest in vituperation of this kind only the Communists can be the beneficiaries.
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