"For him that stealeth a Book from this Library, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with Palsy and all his Members blasted. Let him languish in Pain crying aloud for Mercy, and let there be no relief to his Agony till he sink into Dissolution. Let Bookworms gnaw his Entrails, in token of the Worm that dieth not, and when at last he goeth to his final Punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him for ever and aye".

Apparently since the curse was published the thefts have stopped. Well they would, wouldn't they?

A lot of people who are not 'switched on' to Christianity would say that this is actually what religion is all about: dire curses and threats, long lists of "Thou shalt not" and "Thou shalt burn ".

We may know better. But you only have to look at the letters page of the Catholic weekly press to see plenty of things which reinforce the atheists' opinions. The "Catholic Times" seems to be the worst: column after column of Catholics savaging each other, pouring out anathemas and spitting acid often over quite trivial things, held on to with such a desperate intensity that they become the be-all-and-end-all of the life of faith - if one can call it faith.

Christian communities have known dissent from Day One: St. Paul's letters are full of attempts to bring rivals together. There is also a proper Christian tradition of the rebuke of error. "I solemnly urge you to preach the message, to insist upon proclaiming it, whether the time is right or not, to convince, reproach, and encourage, as YOU teach with all patience " [2 Timothy 4:2] But let us note the stress on patience.

Too often we Christians have put the verb 'complain' above the verb 'proclaim' It needs to be the other way rounds