MR NEALE AND CATHOLICISM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24773, 25 November 1941, Page 11

MR NEALE AND CATHOLICISM

10 THE EDITOR Sir, —It is unfortunate that a " scoop" was made of a section of my address to the Otago-Southland Methodist Synod causing misrepresentation and throwing it out of its true perspective. It would have been better to have printed the address in full,, which was a summary of some of the historic controversies of Christendom from the days of Gnosticism and Arianism to the present-day forms of unbelief. The main purpose of the address was a call to New Testament teaching and preaching as opposed to revived' forms of sacerdotalism and human philosophy. Surely we have not yet reached the stage when the verities of the New Testament can neither be emphasised nor reiterated. I did not impugn either the sincerity or loyality of Catholics; it is not my custom to make a personal attack upon individual belief. I did attack, and.,.will consistently do so, any system of thought which Protestantism regards as unscriptural. It is to be regretted that so many of your correspondents have contravened the ethics of controversy by resorting to personal attack and wrongful imputation.—l am, etc., Leslie B. Neale.

TO THE EDITOB Sir, —Your correspondent, signing himself in Latin " Truth Comes First," should live up to his motto. He says' the : Pope is the direct successor of St. Peter, but cannot produce a single jot of evidence to prove that apostles were ever in Rome, much less confirm his claim that Peter was its first bishop. Your correspondent claims that Christ founded the Catholic (Universal) church. Quite true, but not in Rome. It was in Jerusalem, and Pope after Pope has acknowledged that the Church in England was established before Rome. There is clear evidence in existence, written on the Chicheiter Stone at the time, that Britain provided the first bishop of Rome, Linus by name, not Peter. If then, the.. earliest established Church outside of saw fit to protest against what she considered errors which had crept into the teaching of the Universal Church, she was perfectly within her rights of exercising her liberty of conscience and reforming herself by separation. Protestantism—l love that word, it means witnessing for the truthstarted on no downhill path when it broke away from Roman unity, as your correspondent insists. The break away; gave at least ah open Bible in the common language, and thus the means for men to search out God for themselves.. Protestantism leaves Romans free to follow the dictates of their own consciences, and that is what Britons uphold.—l am, etc., ' G. Steel. Noyjember,23. ,_.. ..... , 4 .,.,-.. .■.;:•. .[We have received letters also from "Accuracy," " Truthful," " Truth," and "Supporter" of Mr Neale challenging the claim mS.de by "Veritas venit Prima." The subject is not one about which, in present cricumstances, we are prepared to publish 'additional correspondence. Nor do we consider it desirable to insert a second letter from Mi- Charles P. Tylee, nor those from "Disgusted" and "Rationalist." — Ed. O.D.T.]