The Editor, Sir:

Please allow me to comment on one aspect of the Rev. Devon Dick's article of Tuesday, October 30, as follows: Whenever October 31 comes around the Rev. Devon Dick will not allow us to forget what he considers the wrongdoing of the Catholic Church 500 years ago. A few years ago he was celebrating the rebellion of Martin Luther and the attendant dishonour which it brought Christianity.

This time around he is celebrating what he refers to as selling of indulgences. The real story is that the Pope who started to build St. Peter's basilica in Rome died and left unfinished this ambitious project with no money to finish it. His successor resorted to granting spiritual favours in the form of indulgences in return for alms to complete the project.

Indulgence involves doing good deeds, of which almsgiving is one, and prescribed prayers with proper spiritual disposition. The action was wrong, he was breaking church regulations and it was not Luther alone which objected but Luther had his own agenda (read Roots of the Reformation).

What Rev. Devon Dick and other anti-Catholics refuse to acknowledge is that this was the action of one man, the Church did not condone it, and subsequently strengthened its canon laws to prevent a recurrence.

It is my conviction that Christians should be seeking common understanding in an effort to exercise the love and unity which Christ commanded us to observe instead of promoting and celebrating disunity and making unchristian and uncharitable utterances. Some of us are part of the problem instead of part of the solution.

I am, etc.,

A. JAMES

alvalj@anngel.com