I AM glad that D Townsend was in no doubt about my beliefs (Catholic Herald, October 9th). It was precisely these beliefs that led Cardinal Newman to reject the idea that the church was a "broader structure", as your reader believes, and brought him into the Catholic Church.
Present day ecumenism seems to have blurred the distinction between truth and falsehood, and little is heard about heresy or error. The impression is given that if no one is completely right, no one is completely wrong, so that the Bishop of Oxford can say that today it seems that Newman only "went into another room in the house in which the good Lord said there were many rooms." The truth is that Newman removed himself to a different house altogether.
That Cardinal Hume's words at Swanwick should be welcomed as steps to unity again implies that the Church is not yet one, and that it is only through endless discussions, during which it is hoped that the Catholic Church will modify her teaching in some way, that unity will be brought about.
This idea directly contradicts the Catechism teaching that the Church is already one. Now, apparently, the contrary is true, and the Cardinal declares that, "Our earnest desire is to become more fully, in God's own time,
the one Church of Christ, united in faith . . .
He makes no mention of our "separated brethren" returning to the "one true fold" which is the Catholic Church, for we are in the same position as the other churches and searching with them for unity. I hope that the Cardinal will explain to us exactly what he means by unity and what the commitment he made at Swanwick involves.
Michael Groves Shipley West Yorks