Combox needed for true debate

by Letters Editor · February 7, 2013

From Bernard Cole, Krugersdorp

Three things have occurred in my life that, taken together, spur me into putting my thoughts on paper. Firstly, in October an Italian court sentenced six seismologists and a politician to six years in prison for manslaughter, based on what turned out to be false assurances about an earthquake that left over 300 people dead in L�Aquilla. The opinion was based on the best evidence available, that an earthquake was highly improbable. The lesson: �present the data, but let people draw their own conclusions�.

“…accept the bona fides of the criticiser, lay out the Church�s reasons for its point of view and in compliance with Vatican II leave it to the conscience of the enquirer as to what he or she does about it.”

Secondly, I needed to know something on the �doxology� that the Anglicans tag onto the Our Father and we Catholics do not.

An article on the internet, after enumerating some reasons why the doxology is not included in the Our Father, ends with �The Bible came from the Church. The Church did not come from the Bible. The Church knows what words were included in the prayer and what words were not, because She, the Church, was there�.

All I can say is, how autocratic can you get?

Thirdly, there was G�nther Simmermacher�s editorial in The Southern Cross (January 23) explaining why the paper had closed down the combox on its website because things were getting too acrimonious. I can well imagine. I too have expressed my criticism of the Church�s point of view in this newspaper and have inevitably come up against the fidei defensor arrogance of those who answer.

I just want to say that it is time that the Church, of which we are all part, when faced with a criticism, should accept the bona fides of the criticiser, lay out the Church�s reasons for its point of view and in compliance with Vatican II leave it to the conscience of the enquirer as to what he or she does about it. That way I doubt that there would be reason for heated or acrimonious arguments.

Defenders of the Faith need to be humble and learned, not arrogant and autocratic!