Sir, - I am old enough to remember when Catholic authorities forbade their members to say the Lord's Prayer with other Christians. The reason given was that those other Christians did not have the same faith as Catholics. Presumably, even if they were speaking to the same God, they did not understand him properly. That debate has moved on long since. We now not only say the Lord's Prayer together but we pray on many occasions and in many ways with one another. The trouble is that Catholic authorities - and people like Father Manning (June 28th) who support them intransigently - have not moved on in other areas of faith and devotion.
Few Christians argue for indiscriminate inter-communion. But most of the good theologians I know and many sensitive Catholics are scandalised that the Church does not agree to more occasions of public Eucharistic sharing and to more sensitive treatment of people in inter-Church marriages as well as in inter-personal situations such those as described by Brian Rush (July 10th). - Yours, etc.,
Prof James O'Connell, Wheatley Avenue, Ilkley, Yorkshire, England.