I FIND the recent exhibition of the few remaining bones of St Thèrèse Martin in the Oxford Oratory macabre and obscene, a return to medieval days when the bones of various saints were hawked around the country for the financial and influential benefit of the then dominant Catholic Church and its monasteries to subjugate the uneducated faithful into believing they would be cured of their illnesses by praying over these bones.
Whoever thought of this event must be some form of warped religious sadist to remove a body from the grave and then dismember it for display. For what purpose? As a recruitment drive for the Catholic Church?
All it has done is to re-enforce the faith of their present members or vulnerable people to rely on faith healing instead of proper qualified medical care.
We have a perfectly adequate NHS in Oxford (perhaps the best in the world) without resorting to primitive mumbo-jumbo, which could be dangerous for people with serious health problems.
Why not let the poor woman rest in peace and intact without parading parts of her around the world?
Derek Honey, Queen Emma’s Dyke, Witney
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