The Catholics Leave

British Protestants. Catholics and Jews hardly knew what to make of the uncomfortable news: the Vatican had ordered Britain's Roman Catholics to quit the Council of Christians and Jews.

To many it seemed like quitting the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The council is pledged, like its counterparts in the U.S. and elsewhere, "to combat all forms of religious and racial intolerance, to promote mutual understanding and good will between Christians and Jews." Queen Elizabeth is the council's patron, and among its five joint presidents have been the Archbishop of Canterbury. Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie of the United Synagogue and Bernard Cardinal Griffin. Archbishop of Westminster.

The Vatican order, which reached Cardinal Griffin several weeks ago. blamed the council for leading Catholics toward the error of "indifferentism"--the idea that one religion is as valid as another.

The Catholic membership dutifully resigned, but kept it secret while appealing to the Holy Office for a reversal of the decision. The news leaked when a London parish priest read the order at Mass. Amid the resulting hubbub in the press, the Protestant Christian World editorialized: "The charge [of indifferentism] is obviously untrue." Wrote the Catholic highbrow weekly Tablet: "The reasons [for the Vatican move] should have been stated . . . carefully and fully . . . Decisions without reasons are far removed from the spirit of government in this country, as in the United States . . ."

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