Thank you for the editorial "For the Church and the World" (The Tablet, 3 January), which contains the golden words of Pope Benedict XVI, “that the world of reason and the world of faith … should not be afraid to enter into a profound and ongoing dialogue.”
Dialogue has a long history in the Church. St Benedict legislated for community dialogue in the third chapter of his sixth century Rule for Monks.
Indeed, if monasticism had paid more attention to that third chapter, it could well be in a far better state than it is today.
Fr Max Palmer, Southern Star Abbey, Takapau, New Zealand