From Frank Bompas, Johannesburg In reference to Mario Compagnoni’s letter (April 8), I am convinced that the beliefs Catholics have in the sacraments are founded on the continuous experience of God’s presence and power in them.

From Tom Drake, Johannesburg Mario Compagnoni (“A non-believer’s opinion”, April 18), welcome to the company of seekers: those who are not satisfied with what is given them, but wish to know more about themselves and their lives; those who wish to discover what our existence is all about!

From Fr Louis Anthony Padua, Cape Town I  found the question regarding baptism by immersion and Michael Shackleton’s answer in the Open Door column of February 29 interesting. Canon Law 851 reads as follows: “Baptism is to be conferred either by immersion or by pouring, in accordance with the provision of the episcopal conference”. It [...]

From: Mario Compagnoni, Bedfordview I  attended the Easter Sunday Mass, looking forward to being imbued with the inspiring message of the resurrection, but the sermon was so dreary that I took the opportunity of reading your publication of April 4 from cover to cover instead.

From Cardinal Wilfrid Napier OFM, Archbishop of Durban Concerning the RSV versus NRSV letter by Fr Szypula and Sr Coyle (March 21), a visit to websites on this topic will lead one to question those who are questioning the decision of the Holy See to opt for the 1971 edition of the Revised Standard Version [...]

From Yolande Trainor, Cape Town The Jewish Passover this year, was a wonderful way “in” to John’s account of the Passion. At the same time that Christians celebrated Easter, our Jewish brothers and sisters celebrated the Passover. This year, the Jewish Passover started on Holy Saturday, which means that the Passover Seder meal was on [...]

From Charmaine Reynolds, Cape Town Mlebana WA Majahe of Johannesburg (March 14) refers to the state of our Catholic schools. I would like to agree and disagree with the opinion stated in the letter. Jesus said: “Let the little children come to me and do not stop them; because it is to such as these that [...]

From Patrick Dacey, Johannesburg Because of differing timescales that had been allocated to Genesis’ creation story, Bishop Usher, a 17th century Irish-Protestant bishop, decided to pinpoint the exact date. After extensive biblical research which included learning the languages of Samaratin, Chaldean and Greek, he concluded that Day 1 began at 6 o’clock, on October 22, [...]

From Fr Wojciech Szypula SVD,  Department of Theology, St Augustine College, Sr Judith Coyle IHM, Senior Lecturer & Coordinator: Pastoral Theology Recently there have been articles in The Southern Cross preparing us for the coming revision to the scripture readings at Mass, including Chris Busschau’s history of biblical translations that led up to the Revised [...]