Sir, - Cardinal Ratzinger's recent document Dominus Iesus has elicited much ill-informed comment. Most of it, with due respect, emanates from your newspaper, whether in the form of reaction from Anglican bishops or in the theological musings of your own correspondents.
One of the features of Dominus Iesus is that there is nothing new in it. When I read through it I found it quite boring because, even with my meagre theological education, I could find nothing in it that I had not already found in the scriptures, the documents of Vatican II or the 1992 Catechism. If Paddy Agnew, Dr Eames or Dr Poyntz consider that this document denotes a change in the Church's attitude it may just be due to their own ignorance of the Catholic faith.
That there is only one Church of Christ is a belief that Catholics have held since the day that Christ said he would found his church (in the singular) on the rock of Peter, and that this church would survive. Sunday after Sunday Catholics profess belief in a Church that is one, holy, catholic and apostolic, not multiple, fragmented and reformed.
So, what's the big deal? I appreciate your frustration and that of the Anglican bishops that the Catholic Church has missed yet another opportunity to preach relativism and Anglicanism, but you really should be used to it by now, you know. - Yours, etc.,
Terence Crotty OP,
St Mary's Dominican Priory, Tallaght, Dublin 24.