Sir: I fear that Nicholas Timmins ("Hail the welfare revolution", 9 May) is only too correct when he predicts that the Labour Party will soon announce "that it wants to replace the remainder of Serps, the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme, with a new funded system - in partnership with the private sector". As mother, the Church is close to the many married couples who find themselves in difficulty over this important point of the moral life." So, priests and bishops who acknowledge the difficulties which people face, and help them in their struggle, are not being disloyal to the teaching itself.This probably explains why Mr Brown believes what is quite contrary to my long experience: that most Catholic bishops of England and Wales reject Humanae Vitae and the more recent Veritatis Splendor. As teacher, she never tires of proclaiming the moral norm ... Pope John Paul's subsequent Letter to the whole Catholic Church in 1981 faces the pastoral problem that many Catholics find Catholic sexual morality very difficult. He wrote that in this field, "the Church is teacher and mother and acts as such. He seems to misunderstand traditional Catholic moral teaching that we must always obey the certain judgment of conscience (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1800) but that we also need to form that conscience according to Catholic teaching.Our International Synod of Bishops met in Rome in 1980 to discuss the Christian family in the modern world. Neither was representative of the mainstream then; nor are their successors now. Andrew Brown claims we use "coded language, faithful to the Roman line but at the same time allows a cheering latitude to individual conscience".

Since the Second Vatican Council there have always been some extreme voices who do not represent mainstream Catholicism. Those who feel the bishops have been too slow to introduce the Council changes usually say that we keep too close to Rome. Those anxious about change often say we don't teach the whole of Catholic Faith. When I was a mainstream diocesan bishop, I was once attacked in two periodicals at the same time: in one, for forcing Roman teaching on reluctant believers; in the other, being disloyal to Rome and not entirely orthodox. could lead to a Catholic civil war" (11 May) greatly exaggerates the real situation here and shows a serious misunderstanding of Catholicism. Catholics seek to be teachers and pastorsSir: Andrew Brown's opinion that one extreme article about "the late Archbishop of Liverpool ... What real purpose does the Criminal Cases Review Authority, set up out of the Birmingham Six Royal Commission on Criminal Justice, have then? Is it just another poodle to the Home Secretary. All such convictions, including similar convictions in Northern Ireland, should be quashed on the grounds that it is now impossible to exclude the possibility of contamination, given the abysmal standards of the UK's government forensic science services.It is now time, at this crucial stage in the Irish peace process when Sinn Fein is being expected even by the US to convince the IRA that the British government is trustworthy to some degree, that the Irish government finally asserts its rights under the Anglo-Irish Agreement to be consulted about the independence of any review of the forensic science service, especially in Northern Ireland, so as to be able to reassure the Irish nationalist community about its fairness.Otherwise, perhaps this matter of the innocent Irish prisoners languishing in British prisons should be the first item on the agenda of all-party talks on 10 June, as opposed to "decommissioning" and calls for the forensic testing of decommissioned weapons.Joe MurphyBirminghamThe writer was formerly secretary of the Campaign for the Birmingham Six (England)..

Sir: So, four years after the government forensic research establishment was found by the Court of Appeal, when it quashed the wrongful imprisonment of Judy Ward, to "have plainly succumbed to the dangers of partisanship", innocent men convicted with tainted evidence may still languish in British prisons, required to wait on the outcome of yet another inquiry which Michael Howard, in his reluctant Commons statement, made clear would end up on his desk and for his consideration ("Semtex error could free 12 IRA men", 15 May). Old forgotten cheque books with a few cheques left inAlways worrying to have lying around, aren't they? Never mind - just send them to us and we'll dispose of them carefully for you That's a promise But don't forget to sign them first!. The post office seems to have decided that it is too expensive to collect postage due any more, and will deliver unstamped mail as normal; there will be a postage due stamp on it, but only as a sort of warning shot that is not followed up.10. ( Send for our new brochure, "101 Uses for Old Toothbrushes, Also, A Few New Ideas On How to Kill Off Relatives With Old Medicines..."8. Pencil endsAs with soap, it is hard to throw away a pencil that is too small or short to use.