LETTER : Rebel theologians are `wreaking havoc'

DR ELIZABETH Stuart, "one of Britain's leading Catholic gay rights campaigners" and a senior lecturer in theology at the University of Glamorgan, says: "The message we got from the Second Vatican Council in 1963 was that we were the Church: we were not solely dependent on the Pope or the bishops or anybody else to tell us what was right or wrong" ("Cardinal `risked Papal fury to give gays subtle support'", 12 March).

This "message" was not from the council; it was from numerous rebellious theologians who since the 1960s have invoked a spurious "spirit of Vatican II" to wreak havoc in the Church they supposedly serve.

Dr Stuart should study the council's real message. Lumen Gentium, the document on the Church, states (section 25): "Furthermore, when the Roman Pontiff, or the body of bishops together with him, define a doctrine, they make the definition in conformity with revelation itself, to which all are bound to adhere, and to which they are obliged to submit; and this revelation ... through the light of the spirit of truth is scrupulously preserved in the Church and unerringly explained."

Frederick Taylor

Leigh, Lancs