life partnership between two people of the same sex rarely in my experience has anything to do with gender role-play. There is no “husband” or “wife” in the same-sex relationships I know of, and I know of quite a few, including my own. Thus there is no question of “a man becoming a woman” as Longley offensively writes. I don’t know any gay men who would accept the theory ascribed by Longley that: “there is no fundamental difference between the sexes”. As he acknowledges at the end of the piece, gay men (and doubtless women, too) are far from indifferent to the gender of their partner. As for what he claims, “what was once the fashionable belief in the gay community –we could all be gay if we weren’t so darned repressed and inhibited”, once again I have never heard or read anything of the kind. That argument, like much of the rest of the piece, seems written in Dawkins mode – ascribe views to a large section of the community which few of them share, and then have a shot at the whole community by hitting the easy target of refuting the nonsense. I have no idea why a gay man or woman should wish to marry his or her partner. Civil partnership deals with the succession and taxation problems that used to arise on the first death. Anti-discrimination measures have removed other legal hurdles to fair treat- ment. A glance at the statistics for the breakdown of marriages under the present regime seems to me to point to its ineffec- tiveness save (sometimes at least) when sacramental. Bernard O’Sullivan London SW8


Defined by his sins? Richard Green (Letters, 9 July) misunderstands and indeed misrepresents my commentary on the TV documentary Abused, which branded Fr Kit Cunningham a monster and an ogre. The point is not “denial” of a man’s sins or offences: it is whether the sins and offences of a man’s youth define his whole life and entire character. For, if this were to be so, then we might as well give up on Christianity altogether. Mary Kenny Deal, Kent


Beware single cause explanations According to your recent report of a speech by Bishop Philip Tartaglia (News from Britain and Ireland, 25 June), he has added his voice to those who suggest that Vatican II con- tributed to the crises that have damaged the Church over the last 40 years. Among the con- sequences, the report cites the fall in vocations, the strain on marriage and the family and declining congregations. This post hoc, propter hoc argument could more convincingly have identified a different range of factors which might have produced


For more of your correspondence, go to the new Letters Extra section of The Tablet’s expanded website: www.thetablet.co.uk


20 | THE TABLET | 16 July 2011


these phenomena: the widespread disintegra- tion of confidence in institutions and ideologies, the general impact of increasing social and economic pressures in society, the child sex-abuse scandal, the rejection by many of the teachings of Humanae Vitae, dis- putes over the new English liturgy, the attacks on faith by the “new atheists”. Secondly, the bishop suggested that “the major question was whether the Catholic Church was in continuity with its tradition” and implied that the agenda and teaching had had to be rescued by re-emphasising contin - uity. Certainly, Benedict has emphasised the need for a “hermeneutics of continuity”; and it is clearly vital to understand how to “read” the essential nature of continuity. However, this does not simply imply the preservation of the status quo; rather, it presses the ques- tion of the role of continuity in effecting valid and necessary reform. The danger is that mis- understanding the positive role of continuity in the process of reform may seriously inhibit necessary change and development. David McAndrew La Plancade, France


Newman on theological freedom Eamon Duffy (“Speaking truth to power”, 9 July) points out that for Newman “theology was not the docile interpreter of the Magisterium, but the ‘regulating principle’ of the Church, without which authority inevitably exceeds its bounds”. But in this important essay on the three so-called “offices” of the Church written at the end of his life, Newman goes on to say: “Yet theology cannot always have its own way; it is too hard, too intellectual, too exact, to be always equitable, or to be always compassionate; and it sometimes has a con- flict or overthrow, or has to consent to a truce or a compromise, in consequence of the rival force of religious sentiment or ecclesiastical interests; and that, sometimes in great mat- ters, sometimes in unimportant.” Earlier in his Apologia, Newman had spo-


ken eloquently in defence of theological freedom, but had not hesitated to qualify this defence by adding that, already as an Anglican, he had come to see “how the initial error of afterwards became heresy was the urging for- ward some truth against the prohibition of authority at an unseasonable time”. Such a theo - logian “may seem to the world to be nothing else than a bold champion for the truth and a martyr to free opinion, when he is just one of those persons whom the competent author- ity ought to silence”. (Fr) Ian Ker Faculty of Theology, Oxford


Useless anxieties Francis Davis (Letters, 2 July) mourns the pass- ing of “Protect us from all anxiety”, in the new English translation of the Mass. It may inter- est him to know that the priest of a parish in Sydney, Australia, always used to say, “Protect us from all useless anxiety”, thus admitting the importance of the notion of anxiety but lim- iting it to that which was therapeutic. (The Revd) Bruce Bridgewood London N11


The living Spirit


There are nights that are so still that I can hear the small owl calling far off and a fox barking miles away. It is then that I lie in the lean hours awake listening to the swell born somewhere in the Atlantic rising and falling, rising and falling wave on wave on the long shore by the village that is without light and companionless. And the thought comes


of that other being who is awake, too, letting our prayers break on him, not like this for a few hours, but for days, years, for eternity. R.S. Thomas (1913-2000) “The Other”


It was His wisdom made you need the sun. It was His goodness made you need the sea. Be sensible of what you need, or enjoy neither. Consider how much you need them. For thence they derive their value. Suppose the sun were extinguished: or the sea were drie. There would be no light, no beauty, no warmth, no fruits, no flowers, no pleasant gardens, feasts, or prospects … . Prize it now you have it, at that rate, and you shall be a grateful creature. Thomas Traherne


Thomas Traherne: poetry and prose Denise Inge


(SPCK, 2002)


I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvellous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul. Psalm 131:1-2


We all have the opportunity some time or other to climb beanstalks. And some of us have experienced the thrill of know- ing what it means to have the little red hen that lays the golden egg, golden resources, whenever we need it; to have the harp that sends the right ideas singing through our minds at the right time; and to find ourselves in the place we wish to be, at the very moment we wish to be there, and with the very people we wish to have with us. Have you ever found a more perfect description of the Kingdom of Heaven manifesting itself on earth than that? Glenn Clark


I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes (James, 1953)


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