Cardinal Vincent Nichols’ comments on the Eucharist (News from Britain and Ireland, 1 March) are quite breathtaking. In order to defend the traditional exclusion of divorcees from the Eucharist, he resorts to reducing the value of the Eucharist to almost nothing, so that exclusion is of no consequence. He seems to favour a “more reserved approach to the Eucharist”. This means that while the clergy receive every day, it is sufficient for divorced laity (all laity?) to go from one year’s end to another with no more than “spiritual communion” or “a blessing”. This conveys rather less urgency than “… unless  you eat the flesh of the Son of Man … you have no life in you …” (John 6:53). It conveys an impressiv