Sias—There has been a good deal of correspondence recently in your columns on the "Conversion of England " following Dr. Orchard's masterly analysis of the Catholic position in this country.
It would appear, however, that most of the writers struck a too pessimistic an outlook on the future of the Church in England. If we examine the standing of the Churches we find the Catholic Church, which is supposed to be a minority Church, actually has a greater number of practising adherents than any one of the more favoured religious bodies; despite the few lingering disabilities she is daily " growing in strength " as the Comte St. Aulaire, former French Ambassador to this country, recently put it.
The so-called Anglo-Catholic movement is a sign of the drift from Protestantism and that some Englishmen outside the Church have not forgotten something of the spirit of old Catholic England; but the greater portion of our countrymen are, alas, tending towards that vague mental condition called natural religion. is not the new Divorce Act the vane which shows the way the wind is blowing?
It is at this point that I refuse to take a gloomy view of the future for it is conceivable that the reaction of the English people after this wave of scepticism has passed will be to re-seek the Golden Way to Heaven. And when they look around there will be found only one unified and authoritative voice, the Catholic and Roman Church waiting patiently and longingly for the traditions of our mediaeval ancestors to return.
DENZIL G. GALVIN. 27, Redcliffe Gardens, London, S.W.10.