Inevitable conflict

From the Rev Dr Ian Ker SIR – Pope Benedict XVI may be a German, but he is not as humourless as your report on his admiration for Newman (May 20) suggests. When he attended my lecture in Rome he did not laugh because Newman referred to “dialogue” with other denominations as “conflict” (which he did not). He laughed when I quoted Newman in the last great chapter of his Apologia as speaking of the inevitable necessity (for doctrinal development), not of “dialogue”, but of “conflict” between the magisterium and the theologians.
At the time, of course, the Pope was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Yours faithfully, IAN KER Burford, Oxon