Andy Burnham is not the only one who found Joseph Ratzinger's talk of a smaller, purer church 'terrifying' and I don't think Katherine Backler serves the cause of truth by saying Benedict said something else (The Tablet online, 11 August).
Jesus told his disciples: 'Go into all the world and make disciples from/of all nations'. Jesus could not have spread the net wider and Benedict had no authority to rationalise a smaller church. Benedict had his own reasons for blaming our ills on secularisation when, in fact, the church should have been owning up to its own failings, repenting and looking outwards to all nations.
Andy Burnham's memory of how it has been is correct, whitewash as some might try.
David Albert Smith, Grimsby
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