Sir, - With regard to the "dead duck" controversy, Father David O'Hanlon (January 31st) seems to be in good company. Rev Stanley L. Jaki, professor at Seton Hall University, and winner of the Templeton Prize, writes in the New Oxford Review (November 2001): "Briefly, Newman was not ecumenical. This does not mean that he did not emphasise the rule of courtesy. Still, whenever Newman felt that truth could only be served by speaking plainly, he did not refrain from being outspoken. The notion of an ever kind, ever tactful, ever suave Newman is a myth.
He repeatedly stated in those letters written to prospective converts that, since it was a mere political construct, the Church of England could not unite with Rome. Union was possible only for individual Anglicans. Newman did not cease repeating that union with Rome implied personal surrender to the teaching authority of Rome and that to elicit such a surrender was impossible either for the Church of England or for any Protestant Church without ceasing to be what they were". - Yours, etc.,
C.T.GREENAN, O.P.
St Saviour's Priory,
Upper Dorset Street,
Dublin 1.