IF, as Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has recently suggested, Christianity is losing ground to other forms of worship or idolatry, perhaps the blame for that decline in basic Christian values should not simply be laid at the feet of ordinary people but at the doors of the very establishment that he represents.

For centuries his predecessors have been telling us that God, the creator of all life, is compassionate, caring, all-forgiving and all- powerful. In the distant past this was an easy and comfortable concept to accept, coming as it did from the mouths of a relatively better educated minority wielding great power and influence, ie. the clergy, scholars and ruling monarchs etc.

But as centuries came and went, education and knowledge became more widespread. It gave the average citizen a broader awareness of ideas about the universe and all things created therein. We now accept, for instance, that the sun does not revolve around the earth and our tiny planet is not the centre of the universe. As that knowledge increased, and our power of reasoning becomes more acute, we are now beginning to question the role of God in our daily lives. Because we have been told that He is loving and all powerful, by the Church, people are now asking why He allows wars, domestic cruelty and personal suffering etc.to continue without His divine intervention.

Here we arrive at the crux of the problem, which the Cardinal appears to be so concerned about, and it is no doubt the reason why church attendances are so much on the decline. Perhaps the time has now arrived to treat us all like intelligent adults by telling his diminishing flocks the truth about our lives in relation to God.

Most of us accept that there is a universal creator. It seems more logical than saying that we are all here as the result of a chemical accident some billions of years ago, and that it is He who has provided such a wonderful world in which to live.

But for some strange reason the Church has failed to highlight the one great unique gift He has bestowed on Man, ie. a brain -- a brain that can reason and make logical decisions. In other words He has given Man the responsibility of deciding his own destiny and way of life. Therefore it is grossly unfair to blame all the troubles which beset mankind at the moment, on God.

This is the reason why millions of Christians are searching for an alternative faith or belief. They feel that they have been let down by the traditional Catholic or Protestant God.

Give it to 'em straight, Cardinal! When they are told that everything that happens is not "the will of Allah" but the design of man, perhaps then your lost congregations will gradually return to the fold.

Jon Aylmer-Smith

7 Riversleigh Avenue,

Lytham St.Annes.