Oakland, San Francisco or Craggy Island, the truth is that there is no fitting place, in the Church envisaged by Pope Francis, and so devoutly desired by Catholic Christians everywhere, for the sort of tyrannical and despotic way Archbishop Cordileone is attempting to run his diocese (The Church in the World, 28 February). When it comes to the crushing of dissent Vladimir Putin, in comparison with the incumbent of San Francisco, is clearly in the halfpenny place.Any priest in his position who appears incapable of making a distinction between the gravity, on the one hand, of masturbation, and on the other hand, abortion, and lumping them both together as a test of Catholicism, has clearly been promoted beyond his competence.Never in my life have I encountered a more compelling case for hol