in today's tablet. 

. . . . . .Many people have issues with the Catholic Church: the status of gays, the divorced and remarried, the abused, the terminally ill campaigning for euthanasia. The list is endless.

Most remain faithful and often feel disappointed, disillusioned and dismayed with the sloth-like slowness of the Church's response to change, but they recognise that the Church is semper reformanda, if not in their lifetime then in that of the community to which they belong. . . . . . Just because change is not forthcoming in one's own lifetime within the Church one should not assume that it will never arrive. We have seen how many of the concerns which provoked Martin Luther and alienated our Methodist brethren have lately been acknowledged and resolved.

The life of Christ should be our insight as to how the Church will be. Yes, it is far from his vision, but as St Paul reminds us "Now we see as through a glass darkly". We have to compete with so many dissident voices and contradictory images that it is a continued struggle to see the wood for the trees. But we must keep faith, particularly at a time when the media and other so-called influential and intelligent voices of reason decry the very existence of the Church. . . . . .

Daniel Kearney, via email