I have read carefully Fr Ian Taylor’s “The Challenge of Pentecostalism facing the Catholic Church” (Catholic News February 25). I note the 204.5 million which Fr Ian Taylor gives for Pentecostals.

However this figure includes (a) Denominational Pentecostals (Charismatics) who are counted twice, i.e., within the denomination as Catholics, Anglicans, etc and also within Pentecostal numbers; and (b) anyone who has had any relationship with a Pentecostal community even if they haven’t joined and even if this was a transient relationship.

We do not know the number who have actually joined Pentecostal Assemblies. That number will be much lower than the 204.5 million quoted by Fr Ian Taylor.

It should be underlined that numbers tell very little – there was probably more conversion to Gnosticism than to Christianity at the time of the Early Church. People “convert” for all sorts of reasons including the “pull” of the Prosperity Gospel, the hope of “miracles”, linkages with dominance - in this case North America - or the camaraderie of small groups.

The demand for instant gratification and for entertainment which is part of modern popular culture, is replicated in the Pentecostal Crusades. The use of the Bible as historical “prophecy” seems to explain events in the absence of historical or sociological debate.

In the case of Trinidad and Tobago, a Pentecostal Church existed in Gallus Street since I believe at least the 1930s. There is little conversion. How is it that 50 years later there is massive expansion?

The reason given by one Jamaican anthropologist for the same phenomenon in Jamaica is that the adoption of Pentecostalism by the upper class removed the popular suspicion of it and made it attractive. To what extent did the adoption of Pentecostalism by the upper class here (i.e., faith healing, speaking in tongues) in the 1970s have the same impact?

There is another reason for the spread of Pentecostalism here: its incorporation of the “small church”. These were a very specific phenomenon before the reorganisation of Caribbean Pentecostalism in the late 1960s.

 They arose, served a particular social function in an area and disappeared. They are now franchised by Pentecostals abroad, integrated into the Pentecostal collaborative industry here and may receive funding from the USA or Canada and access to the Pentecostal media.

Even with all of this, according to census figures Pentecostal numbers here have not risen significantly between the 1990 census and that of 2000.

Having made the point about falling numbers in the Church, Fr Ian Taylor then proceeds to take up the question of (i) the “model” of the Church, (ii) baptism, (iii) Scriptures and Sacraments.

In all three Fr Ian Taylor’s position is in opposition to the position of the Catholic Church and in opposition to the Orthodox Church i.e. in opposition to all the Churches directly founded by the Apostles.

For none of these is the model of the Church something we choose, as Fr Ian Taylor seems to think. The Church is the Body of Christ which has as its head the Lord himself and which includes all who have entered into the glory of God.

Its first expression – the Apostles – are chosen by Our Lord. The structure of the Church is willed by our Triune God. Moreover the Church in her major decisions is guided by the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:29-40; 10:19, 44-47; 11:12-16; 15:8; 15:28; 13:2; 16:6-7; 19:1).

That the Church is Holy, Catholic and Apostolic is not something I can choose to believe or not believe. It is dogma. I subscribe to it every time I say the Credo.

This model of the Church Fr Ian Taylor links to baptism. Here we must be very clear. There are not two baptisms as Fr Taylor declares. There is not “a baptism in water in the name of Jesus” as Fr Ian Taylor writes, and a separate baptism to the Holy Spirit as Fr Ian Taylor states.

Catholic Baptism uses the Trinitarian formula of Matthew 28:19. It is in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38) and it is this which opens the way for the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38) which the baptised receive at baptism and which is confirmed with the laying of hands (1 Tim 4:14) at the sacrament of sending on mission: confirmation.

That there is one baptism is believed by the Early Church and is already declared by St Paul. We cannot change this: it is dogma. I subscribe to it every time I say the Credo. This has been underlined to Pentecostals and to Charismatics by the Vatican.

It was repeated in comments at the time of the recent centenary of Pentecostalism. I find it surprising that Fr Ian Taylor, who after all administers baptism, does not seem to know this.

The third question which Fr Taylor raises is which comes first, the Word of God – in fact the Scriptures – or the Sacraments. It must be underlined that for Catholics the only complete revelation of God, is the Word that was there before the beginning: Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures are understood only with reference to Him.

For Fr Taylor the Word of God is the Scriptures and these predate the Sacraments. However both historical research and archaeology tell a different story. It is the Church already gathered around baptism, the “breaking of bread,” the laying of hands, the sending on mission and the anointing of the sick which selects, gathers and proclaims what is included as Scripture.

Jews do this after the fall of the Temple and their dispersal. The Church does this after the death of the Apostles and of the generation immediately after that of the Apostles. In both cases “the People make the Book”. Not only do the People make the Book – only they can interpret it. The Bible remains for Catholics “read in Church,” i.e., interpreted within the traditions of the Church.

May I add that I do not find Pentecostals knowing the Bible more than do Catholics. They have made no great contribution to biblical research. The lived through relationship with the Bible is there for Catholics from the prayers of each day – fundamentally the prayers of the Synagogue – to the light burning forever before the tabernacle, ashes as a sign of mourning and penitence, the aspersion with holy water as once it was with the blood of sacrificed animals, to “the Lord be with you” which opens the Mass, the words of John the Baptist on seeing Jesus, the Hosannas as the sign of the Messianic Kingdom.

We do more reading of Scripture at a Mass than Pentecostals do at their service and some Catholic spiritualities are based entirely on meditation on the Scriptures.

This is so of the Lectio and true of Ignatian spirituality, to mention only two. But is this what it is all about or is it an attempt by Fr Taylor to say that since the Word comes before the Sacraments therefore it is Pentecostals who are really the true Church? Throughout his article I have the uncomfortable feeling that this is what he is saying.

It must be underlined that Pentecostalism (Charismatics) is only one of many spiritualities within the Catholic Church and only one of the spiritualities of the Holy Spirit – and not the most profound.

 Benedict XVI himself constantly refers to that spirituality of the Holy Spirit in which Wisdom enlightens Reason and Reason witnesses to Wisdom. The Spirit as constantly recreating from the old something new is part of Ignatian spirituality. The Spirit as creating unity is fundamental to inter-Christian dialogue.

If we take the very texts Fr Taylor refers to and misquotes: Vatican II documents and Dominus Iesus, what emerges is the richness of Catholic spiritualities, the humbling call to discipleship, and the width and largeness of a salvation I am not permitted to narrow: my Lord has saved the world.

All creation is recreated; the anonymous or invisible disciple of Our Lord is also called to give a witness that is needed for the Kingdom. Unlike what Fr Taylor presumes, I do not go to any Mass whatsoever out of “obligation”. I go to meet my Lord at the banquet He prepares – a banquet of His own self.

May I add that I expect from priests at a minimum, belief in the Church within which they are public servants and belief in the sacraments they administer.

Finally, Fr Ian Taylor’s description of what and why Pentecostal evangelisation is the unadulterated “Faith alone” first found in Martin Luther and further simplified in the version associated with the Methodist revival.

Catholics have never held this restrictive view of salvation nor yet its automatic nature. There is now an agreed text on faith, grace and salvation accepted first by Catholics and Lutherans and recently agreed to by Methodists.

I would hope that conversion to Catholicism is done on the basis of this agreement and this understanding of the relationship between faith and works.

Over to you, Your Grace.