How was that possible? I have no idea, but I did; so let us leave it at that! When one is in a position to do something, and one knows and has good reason to know that no-one else is likely to be able to do it nearly so well, is there not a duty to do it for the sake of society? And is not this an imperative duty, irrespective of the opposition which one knows will greet one’s efforts.
Cardinal Ratzinger recently spoke, with good reason, about the intolerant secularism that was striding across Europe. It was a striking phrase, capturing vividly the menace and the evil of the attitude of mind he was denouncing. As Pope Benedict, one of the first things he said, presumably to help define his pontificate, was that Mankind had lost its way. Both remarks needed saying; and it is much to his credit that he made them. Secularism knows its own mind, even if false; whereas your standard archbishop of Canterbury, through the need to conciliate and compromise with many and varied conflicting interests, is so firmly wedded to sitting on the fence that he lacks the conviction of a leader, and so cannot hope to inspire conviction in others. And “truth” goes by default; because as Pushkin cynically observed, “The public would much prefer a single edifying lie, to a host of small irritating truths”.
So if there is any truth in religion, it is time someone proclaimed it in a way intelligible to the ordinary man. That means proclaiming it in the idiom of modern thought, and in modern English, being willing to leave behind the venerable concepts of our incomparable Liturgy, in which we are greatly blessed. And that means first denouncing the false myths with which we are fed all day, and every day; the chief of which is that everyone is equal.