PRIESTS, POLITICS, AND THE POPE
SIR,—Although one must sympathise with the reasons that urged Mr. Charles Edwards to counter so strongly some of Mr. Gedge's re- marks in an article two weeks ago, he has, I feel, read too much into the offending para- graph. .I hope that perhaps Mr. Charles Edwards could be persuaded to deliver a more reasoned argument. For my part, although I feel that Mr. Gedge's accusation of hypocrisy is completely untrue, his argument does contain a small modicum of truth; The Catholic Church does not attach herself to any particular regime (as Mr. Gedge claims she does), but it is obvious that she must recognise any lawfully established regime in any country and co- operate as far as possible with it. Since, until recent years, there have been few regimes of a Left nature, it is not surprising that the Catholic Church appears to have tended to- wards the, Centre and the Right. One must also recognise the fact that as one veers fur- ther to the Left today, one soon reaches a theory that denies the 'existence of religion and, a little further on, forbids it.
What better evidence could be required of the Catholic Church's ardent desire to take her rightful place under any regime, and to bring about social justice all over the world, than her efforts, trials and persecutions in Communist Europe and China; movements such as that of the Priest-workers, or that of the Catholic Action Movement; and above all else, the Papal Encyclicals Rerem Novaruni and Quadragesimo Antto?
I hope, and I am sure that I am right, that Mr. Gedge's remarks were not meant quite as strongly as Mr. Charles Edwards took them.— Yours faithfully,
IAN R. WIGHTWICIL Corchester, Corbridge-on-Tyne, Northumber- land
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