within three years, re-married and, although denied the Sacraments, brought up six children in the Faith (Mass every Sunday, Catholic schools, prayers every night).
The youngest, a delightful seven-year-old boy, preparing for his first Holy Communion, recently informed his aunt "Daddy hasn't made his First Communion yet".
"Many teenagers only go to Mass on Sundays when they feel like it" states your lead article, August 12. Who will be surprised if, when he becomes a teenager, this child falls into the same mould.
When children are affected in this way could not Mgr Brown and his advisers be persuaded to take a more compassionate attitude by allowing the parents to receive the Eucharist?
It is surely more important to God that a Christian family should receive Communion together than that Catholic dogma should he upheld for its own sake? Princess Michael's children are being brought up as Anglicans, yet she is allowed to receive Communion. Surely the parents of Catholic children should be given the same. treatment? Or is the Church to be brought, sadly, into disrepute?
Lavhda Watson West Sussex Mr St John Stevas, August 5, "Princely Marriage Settlements" was irritatingly sycophantic in tone and inaccurate.
The Baroness and Prince Michael of Kent were not forced to resort to a register. They did
this of their own free will and in defiance of the Church's concept of true marriage.
As for the expression "highest ranking Catholic in the land" what does Mr St John-Stevas mean by this?
All members of the Church are equal in the eyes of God, whatever their background. The leading Catholic in England can only be Cardinal Hume, he leads his flock and Princess Michael of Kent could never be said to "take precedence" over any Duke of Norfolk or any other Catholic in the land.
Albertine Nelson Sherbourne, Dorset.
In "Breaking bread for united marriage," August 12, Christopher Rails indicated confusion over "the official Catholic position that Eucharist is never allowed as a means of promoting unity" and the problem of 'two-church' family's needs.
This Catholic family has become a 'two-church' family as our children married Lutheran, and Anglican partners.
In 1949 the position was clearly put by Fr Ronald Knox" when an Anglican minister blesses bread and Wine, and Anglicans receive what they believe is Jesus Christ, we Catholics must believe that God makes it so for them, even though we cannot accept it for ourselves."
By analogy, intercommunion would be like a match in which one team have cricket bats and rules while the others have baseball bats and rules. Each game is valid, but no match can be played.
Roy Campbell Berkshire.