Judgment that Catholic Church will split is wrong

DENIS Bradley's column (January 2) is wrong in its judgment that the Catholic Church will split.

It would have done so by now if there was any disunity of belief. You have to have beliefs in the first place to fall out with somebody who differs.

Many so-called Catholics believe in practices which have no part of Catholic doctrine - divorce, artificial contraception, acceptance of homosexuality and now a limited form of abortion - that is, a limited form of child-murder, for the mother's convenience. Almost none, including as far as I can see, many priests and probably half the bishops do not believe in Papal infallibility, which still stands. Can anyone cite me the Papa or Curia change which declared the abolition of infallibility? It would be world news, on TV, radio and newspapers, in both Catholic, Protestant, even Muslim and Hindu countries. How these many people, who declare themselves Catholics, can look anyone straight in the eye and say it baffles me. I am 63 and many of my generation whom I meet are not orthodox, not even Catholics in fact. You have to go to the 70-plus generation to get old-fashioned Catholics. Denis strongly suggests that it will be a struggle between the bishops and cardinals, probably rightly because many of the so-called laity might as well be agnostics, considering how very little Christianity of any kind they practise. Catholic marriage has also been ignored by many.

To modern people, who seem to think they are leading the new Vanguard religion, such ideas are ancient relics from that grim, boring old book, the Bible - that is if these people even know what a relic is.