Sir, - Accepting that every thinking Christian is a theologian, the Rev Michael Manning (October 1st), as a member of the Roman Catholic Church, is fully entitled to claim that if he "genuinely believes that the [Roman] Catholic Church is Christ's Church subsisting on earth with all the means of salvation won by Christ, that faith of itself demands that one must do one's best to have all one's children brought up in it." As a member of the Reformed Catholic Church of Ireland, I am equally entitled to make the same claim, though without any latent or implied claim to an exclusive monopoly of truth. This is because every Christian theologian should at least have as much humility as St Paul himself and admit that at present "we see as in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now we know in part; then we shall fully understand."
Having made this admission in genuine humility, we should then leave the final verdict to Him who alone will have the last word: God! - Yours, etc.,
Patrick Stephens
Maharabeg,
Castlegregory,
Co Kerry.