IF Cardinal Cormac Murphy- O'Connor, head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, intends by his Christmas message urging British people to be more welcoming to immigrants that we should treat them with civility and indeed friendliness, then I would certainly endorse it.

If, however, he is urging that we relax rather than tighten the rules on who can come, and reward those who break these rules, then I would think he had chosen a rather arbitrary way of addressing the problem of exclusion.

Is he concerned only with migrants within the UK who feel excluded, or for all those who are excluded from the UK and who might be better off here? There are rather a lot of these.

It is true many of the poorest would not be able to get here without help, but I feel the Cardinal would not wish to deny them such assistance. How many more would we need to let in before he felt our Christian duty had been done?

John Riseley, Harrogate, North Yorkshire.