IN the CATHOLIC Tit.P.AT.0 Lit May 3, a correspondent referred to the ruling by Bishop O'Callaghan of Clogher that dance halls must be closed at midnight. The writer did not give credit to the bishop's benevolence or full information to the readers.
Bishop O'Callaghan. freely and benignly, grants dispensations for dress dances and fashionable balls until 1 am., 2 am, or any a.m. the revellers choose to leave at.
This writer feels that Irish bishops have, at times, been too vocal. Again in the diocese of Clogher, the bishop and some of his priests cannot be accused of being too vocal when vacancies for teac:hers are in the offing. But if teachers who have suffered from discrimination become articulate, the bishop simultaneously breaks the rule of silence.
Alice Higgins Elelcoo, Co. Fermanagh.
Liberal thought
mAY I draw the attention of all those who lament the liberal thought sweeping through the Catholic Church today, to the following quotation (my italics) by Fr. Piet Fransen, Si in "Mission and Witness": "No progress can be made in thought except through the dialogue between man and man through the strange dance of question and answer that develops when complementary points of view are brought face to face.
"There is a dialogue between Individual persons, between groups, between periods of time. We are all aware of the swing of the pendulum which takes the thought of a nation from one extreme to the other and so makes it possible to progress in the discovery of truth.
"The human race thinks somewhat in the same way it walks. It Pis its state of unstable equilibrium which makes it able to move forward. Thought at rest is dead thought."
Margaret Moor East Molesey, Surrey.
Books plea
T HAVE received a card from Fr. Theophane, appealing for books, pamphlets and magazines for his college at Bangalore. It has a roll of 300 students studying for the priesthood. If your readers have any to spare. please would they send them to: Fr. Theophane, C.M.I., Dharmaram College, Bangalore 29, India.
John McRae St. Paul's Cray, Kent.