Fallibility
Sir: A. N. Wilson must have had very bad indigestion indeed to rant away so against the teaching of the Catholic Church in reviewing Paul Johnson's book on the Pope (6 March). It is all the stranger that he should still feel qualified simultaneously to lament the destruction of the 'so-called Tridentine Mass' and to attack the ancient practice of priestly celibacy. Your Literary Editor was clearly so much in the frame of mind of the 39 articles at the time of writing that it is hard to know why he failed to apply the term 'blasphemous fiction' to the Sacrifice of the Mass, rather than to Papal infallibility.
Mr Wilson admits to being puzzled by the Pope's insistence on priestly celibacy. May I recommend that he reads Pope John Paul's letter to priests of 9 April 1979? Here he ad- mits the difficulties of celibacy, denies that it degrades the value put upon marriage and supports its retention by appeal to Scripture and the tradition of the Latin Church. In any case, it was Paul VI, the trendy Pope who wrote an encyclical (Sacerdotalis Caelibatus) in defence of celibacy. And if Vatican II is to be blamed for-the destruc- tion of the 'Tridentine Mass', it must also bear responsibility for reaffirming celibacy.
Mr Wilson may find the Pope's teaching 'detestable', but I do wish he would make a little more effort to understand it.
Christopher Howse
Catholic Herald, Lambs Passage, Bunhill Row, London ECI
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