What a pity that an article with such a promising title (“Humanism belongs to believers”, 6 December) misses the chance to explore the convictions shared between secular humanists and Christian humanists, such as respect for human dignity, freedom and solidarity. Recognition for the truth of the person was reclaimed by the Second Vatican Council’s defence of freedom of religion against the objectivism typical of anti-modernism that “error has no right”. The Tablet’s cover line “Humanism needs God” could have been developed with reference to Immanuel Kant’s distinction between the ground of moral obligation to others – human freedom – and the ground of meaning and hope for moral action – God as Creator of a world that