Robert Mickens’ Letter from Rome (7 December) has a definition of the sensus fidei amusing in its inbuilt futility. As I understand it, any doctrine of the Magisterium must receive the support of the laity before it can be viewed as an authentic teaching of the Church. The laity in turn are guided by and faithfully obey the Magisterium.Thus, if the people of God as a whole accepts a magisterial teaching then the teaching is confirmed. If they do not, then the dissenters have failed in essential loyalty and, presumably, can be ignored. On this basis, we have now only to decide whether to catalogue the sensus fidei with rubber stamps or loaded dice. Either that or see this definition as the first step towards the formal definition of magisterial infallibility.(The Revd) Patrick Bryan,