Sir, - As a long-time devotee of St Therese of Lisieux, I deplore the vulgarity of the proposed exhibition of her relics.
Therese's own writings have elements of naivety and sentimentality that were quite normal in late 19th-century Catholic France, but she was a woman of profound intelligence and deeply rooted mystical awareness. There is nothing in her writings that betrays anything like the ghoulish bad taste and theological destitution I see in this relic-tour.
Exploitation of the lovable figure of Therese was carried out with huge success earlier in the century. Beleaguered bishops today imagine the same tactic is going to revitalise the Church. But times have changed. What was a respectable and natural demonstration of piety before Vatican II has been replaced by something forced and insincere. The acclamation of Therese as a Doctor of the Church was a highly questionable way of celebrating her distinctive charism. The cult of her bones is an even more insensitive response.
I am sure the relic-tour will be a huge success, and will stir zealous feelings, and maybe produce miraculous cures. But I doubt if it will make the Church a healthier or more enlightened community. The Papal Visit of 1979 should have taught us the futility of spectacle and the need to look to the foundations. - Yours, etc.,
Rev Joseph S. O'Leary, Sophia University, Chiyodaku, Tokyo, Japan.