Sir, - Dear me! Joe Foyle (August 28th) is still gagging on something I said over 30 years ago.
Mr. Foyle disdains argument but he does launch personal insults (argumenta ad hominem) as recklessly as Saddam Hussein dispatched Scud missiles during the Gulf War.
Since Mr Foyle will not hear what I have to say, permit me to quote what the Belgian Bishops (and some other national conferences of bishops) said in their declaration on Humanae Vitae: "If someone competent in the matter and capable of forming a well-founded judgment -- which necessarily supposes sufficient information - after serious investigation, before God, reaches different conclusions on certain points, he has the right to follow his convictions in this matter, provided he remains disposed to continue his investigation."
Not chestnuts, Mr Foyle, but a theological position founded on Catholic teaching on conscience - a teaching now almost two millennia old. - Yours, etc.,
Paul Surlis, Crofton, Maryland, USA.