I enjoyed Christopher Bellitto's piece on Pope Francis and Yves Congar ("True and False Reform", 3 January). After reading it, I couldn't help thinking that we need to embrace "extremes" to know how to keep balance and see the way ahead in the ride of life. Whatever our preferred role in keeping on course, we must accept other viewpoints as complementary to our own, no better or worse, just different.
But not so with "extremists" and their excesses, be they religious, political or social. By my definition, they're blinkered, blind to other viewpoints, and have lost balance – it is they we must pick up and reform. And that too requires seeing through their eyes, something which only comes from the patient, loving dialogue and willingness to adapt that Congar urges. May we have more of that in 2015.
Marcus Robbins, Oxford
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