Letters

It was not necessary to have “perfect memories of events that took place decades earlier”. The accounts of the resurrection, while detailed, are far from exhaustive. For instance, the record in Luke’s gospel of the journey of Jesus to Emmaus with two of his disciples is nothing like a transcript of the conversation they had. However, some things stuck. How could Thomas or Mary Magdalene, for example, forget some of the things Jesus said? Not that they had to, of course, because they passed on their experiences to others and may even have written them down. Even if they didn’t, others would have, and as we know, “the palest ink is stronger than the most retentive memory”. Mr Beaux is free to believe that the accounts of the resurrection are devoid of evidentiary value. The disciples felt the same when the women first related their experiences to them. They came to believe otherwise.

Peter Barclay
Mordialloc, Vic

SIR: Why should we continue to contribute our tax dollars to fund a workforce comprising almost entirely leftists who unashamedly push their socialist agendas and peddle their atheist environmental religion? There is no longer even a semblance of balance in the ABC news and commentary. One maddening example is the Q&A program, run by an unashamedly biased leftist who is joined by fellow left-wing journalists, academics, politicians and members of the arts community. An occasional hapless conservative is invited to give the impression of balance, only to be treated with smug guffaws when he or she dares to offer a “politically incorrect” view.

It’s ironic that the ABC falls over itself to support the federal Labor government, which is trying to pass laws to reduce the freedom of the media.

Unfortunately the dominance of leftists in journalism is not confined to the ABC. Consequently public debate is biased and truth is suppressed. Truth can only prevail where free speech and freedom of opinion are allowed. The end game of suppressing free speech can be seen in all despotic regimes. Tyrants throughout history have relied on the ability to silence all opposition.

Tony Hassall
Ballandean, NSW

SIR: There is much I can agree with in Christopher Akehurst’s article (October 2012) on developments in the Catholic Church since the election of Pope John XXIII. However, I disagree with the implication that there was no crisis in the Church in the late 1950s. Perhaps there was no crisis in Australia; but there certainly was in the rest of the world, and particularly in Europe.

There was a steady decline in religious affiliation during the twentieth century, a decline, however, which was arrested and probably inverted during the Second World War, when most of the continent of Europe was occupied by the Nazis. They were anxious days and times of great insecurity. The church as always was a place of refuge. Moreover, in the occupied countries the only prominent public opponents of the Nazis were the churches, which naturally gained support from people who might not otherwise have been inclined to join a church. As a result the churches were filled during the war years.

Moreover, the various churches found they had to co-operate with each other in their stance against the oppressor. At least in the western part of occupied Europe, a rapprochement ensued involving several Protestant denominations, Catholics and Jews.

Yet when the war ended, not only did the long-term decline in religious affiliation resume, but, as the special reasons which had contributed to the increased attendance at church during the war fell away, the decline accelerated. In the early 1950s the trend was so obvious that parish priests were reported to have suffered from breakdowns thinking they were personally responsible for the decline.

Further erosion occurred among church members who did not wish to give up the closer relations generated between the various religious denominations in the fight against the Nazis.

But above all, most Catholics, including those who remained faithful churchgoers, were looking for answers to questions which stemmed directly not so much from the death and destruction the war had brought but rather from its inhumanity, in particular the Holocaust.

Pius XII, who had introduced some major reforms in the early 1940s, appeared to be incapable of taking the necessary action when it became clear in the early 1950s that the churches were emptying. He did introduce some changes to the Easter liturgy, but seems to have left things at that.

Pope John, who succeeded Pius, was clearly aware of the crisis. But he was also aware of his own frailty, and rather than address the problems himself, he decided to call an ecumenical council—a mistake in my book, as in that of Akehurst, and an opportunity lost. For as the council, not unexpectedly, proved to be a disappointment to important sections of the Church, many operators started promoting their own agendas or simply pursuing change for the sake of change in defiance of the Church and on the back of the student revolts that were taking place at about the same time (and which were not entirely unconnected to the religious developments); as justification they used a general reference to the council proceedings, which few people had taken the trouble to read. This meant that, in the end, most of the loyal clergy who had had genuine reform in mind were diverted to a policy of battening down the hatches rather than helping to adapt the Church to her dramatically changed surroundings.

Tony Winkelman
Ringwood East, Vic

SIR: Thanks for publishing “The Life and Death of Joe Lynch” (October 2012), Lynch being the subject, not a well-known figure, of “Five Bells”. Kenneth Slessor’s beautiful poem, written many years after this man’s death by drowning, has long been deservedly famous. But Lindsay Foyle has filled out the background story to our great advantage. His well-researched and illuminating piece resonated with both the sadness of the lost life and Slessor’s haunting evocation of the event and its implications. Articles like this about literature, but conveyed with biographical depth, ensure that I’ll never stop buying Quadrant.

Suzanne Edgar
Garran, ACT