Letter: False prophet of doom

Sir: We've waited long enough for an apology from Sister Marie Gabriel, whose advertisement in the Independent of 12 July prophesied global doom in the wake of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet striking Jupiter.

In the advertisement she promised a cosmic day of judgement and, I quote, 'if her forecasts do not come true she will admit her mistake'.

So let's have the admission, and for two reasons: 1) she may have worried many people, particularly the impressionable and the unhinged, for which she bears sole responsibility; 2) her admission will be another faltering step for the human race away from the long, dark shadows of Middle Age superstition and towards scientific reason.

Yours sincerely,

CHRISTOPHER HILTON

Sawbridgeworth,

Hertfordshire

28 July