That you publish letter after letter from a variety of regular correspondents shows with fair certainty that some of us have infallible knowledge of your address or FAX number. We do not need to claim this infallibility; it is evident to all that we possess it. To claim it would be implicitly to admit that there is room for doubt in the matter

. I suggest that the Papal claim to infallibility is suspect in principle precisely because it is a claim relating to essentially controversial matters - faith and morals. The Vatican would look pretty silly claiming infallible knowledge that the earth is roughly spherical and that falling off the edge is therefore a non-existent risk - whatever Christians might have thought on these matters in the past.

Your recent correspondents' reminders that Papal Infallibility is claimed only in respect of limited areas of thought is pure sophistry. 'Faith and morality' are two of the commanding heights of ideology; to admit fallibility in other areas is no big deal, no big act of respect to people who think that the Church can as easily be mistaken as the rest of us - and that's pretty easily is it not?