Letter to The Editor

To the Sunday Age
The gentle and affirmative spirit of Bishop Philip Huggins (22/1) is admirable, as is his call for ‘leadership marked by courage, imagination and compassion.’ However, our leaders will also require a new realism of outlook which necessarily qualifies his summary of the condition of Australia. Despite his optimism, there are dangerous disharmonies within our social and political structure: diversity without understanding and the honouring of truth will result in future conflict. Then again, as the debate over section 18C shows, we lack adequate intellectual freedom and, in many quarters, even respect for the principle of free speech. As for Church renewal, yes, that is essential, but not so much in regard to sexual misdemeanours of some priests as in the field of basic theology which needs the repudiation of erroneous doctrines still at the centre of ‘orthodoxy’.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic