do not intend on account of Auberon Waugh to cancel my subscription to the CATHOLIC H IAA" D but T feel I must write to support one of your readers who finds him distasteful.
I have admired your paper for many years and ant dismayed at your taking on Waugh as a columnist, He does you no credit. He is smart without being witty, juvenile without being fresh, and irritating without being stimulating. Worse than this, he shows a complete lack of the courtesy which is the hallmark of &rade and which I have always in the past relied on in the Wrest re I feel very deeply that you would be doing yourself, your readers and the public image of the Church a service by replacing Waugh with someone of less famous parentage but of more intelligence, judgement and ordinary good manners.
J. P. Jackson Hull, Yorks.
In saying that 1 find Mr. Waugh's column the most interesting and readable in your newspaper, I do not wish to give offence to the other columnists and readers who have their own styles and preferences.
If Mr. Martin finds Auberon Waugh's articles not to his liking, a simple solution would be to stop reading them; but please do not deprive us of the pleasure.
By asking Mr. Waugh to write his column I am sure you are seeking to avoid the dangers of dull uniformity. I for one, applaud your action.
D. P. K. Forde Maidenhead.
The tone of Mr. Waugh's column is almost invariably cynical and uncharitable. Cynicism is of doubtful value in a world in which there is a surfeit of this attitude; whilst uncharitable comment is unChristian, and so, completely out of accord with the policy of your exemplary jeurnal.
"Angie-Catholic Reader" Chester.
Too many people have suffered harsh personal attacks in your correspondence columns of late, the most recent victims being Fr. Gillan and Auberon Waugh. Is it too much to expect disagreement to be accompanied by charity and understanding?
As you have asked for comments on Mr. Waugh's column, may I say that T find it both entertaining and stimulating, and quite in keeping with the policy of your paper. Mr, Waugh and dug holes together in the Archaeological Society at Downside (which we joined to avoid that awful business of rugger), and I'm very glad to see that his pen k a good deal mightier than his spade! Ban the bomb, by all means, but don't for goodness sake, ban Waugh.
P. M. C. Davies Dublin. 4.
The CATHOLIC HLRALD should not buy nails for its coffin. Waugh is a big nail. I cancelled my order recently.
C. J. Verling
Southampton.
It can scarcely be denied that your columnists' views on most matters reveal him as "right of cent! e". To give a proper balance to the feature. I have felt for some time that Mr. We ugh should share the column (writing on alternate weeks) with someone holding "left of centre" views.
John Butler
I was brought up in the tradition of Chesterton and Belloc and used to think that their sanity was a characteristic of most of those who held the Faith. Modern "Liberal" Catholicism has shattered this illusion. That is why I find Mr. Waugh's column such a treat. Not only does he write uncommonly well but what he %relics is nearly always commonsense.. Do not, I beg you, listen to the pompous objections of those who noisily profess to love liberty, but love it Only so far as it works in their favour.
P. B. Norris Southsea. , Hants.
It is supposed to be 'fashionable' to criticise and even deride the most sacred things as well as the moral laws but I never ex-peeled to see such ideas printed in a paper of the CATHOLIC HERALD'S standing.
It might be to Mr. Waugh's advantage to re-study the ten commandments as he seems to have forgotten their very simple and straightforward tenets Reader for Thirty Years S.W. I 6.
As a teenager and possible representative of future CATHOLIC HFRALD readers, I cast my vote pro-Waugh. I admire him tremendously for saying "what oft is thought but ne'er so courageously expressed," and find he makes a welcome change with his forthright and witty comments.
Not the least of Waugh's charms is that one has to be either for or against him, which may possibly account for the storm of abusive or admiring letters received, At any rate, whilst Waugh remains it is a certainty there will never be any scarcity of subject matter for the correspondence column, You are to be congratulated on having obtained such a first-class writer, and if second-class readers cannot stomach him, let them turn elsewhere. Please keep him.
(Miss) C. Vassal! (17) Barnet, Herts.
Having taken your paper tor something like 28 years, I am now considering cancelling my order. Auberon Waugh's column may be a salutary irritant, as Ingested by Mr. Martin, but 1 have now reached an age when 1 prefer to be without such stimulation from an otherwise intelligent Christian newspaper. One Tears that the young man is the victim of a tooaffluent upbringing, which seems to have deprived him of any discernible sense of understanding of the problems of those less fortunate than himself.
(Mrs.) T. Cubb Caernarvonshi re.
VTVE WAUGH I D. J. Collins Bristol, 6.