From the Editor of The Tablet Sir, In his recent Herald article calling for the conversion of England, Fr Aidan Nichols referred to The Tablet's editorial in its obituary issue for Cardinal Hume. The editorial mentioned four groups to whom the late cardinal was drawn married couples baffled by the ban on contraception; the divorced and remarried; women generally; and priests who had left the active ministry.
In Fr Nichols's article, however, these pressing pastoral concerns have been represented as The Tablet's own "package for liberal reform".
The first of these issues was famously raised by Cardinal Hume in the context of the synod of bishops in 1980. The last three groups were much on his mind as he contemplated the coming millennium. He thought that the European synod due to meet this autumn in Rome ought to take reconciling initiatives in these areas, though he did not expect it to happen.
yours faithfully, JOHN WILKINS The Tablet London W6