Dr Eilis Field would do well to read the article “Italians get cross about the Cross” again (Letters, September 3). The article, as far as I read it, does not serve as an anti-Christian or anti-Catholic sounding board, only one man’s opinion about the practice of displaying scenes of torture in a classroom setting. This seems to be something that could well form part of The TES’s coverage.

Dr Field would also do well to check with a dictionary before criticising the categorisation of the Jesus story as a fable. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary offers this definition: “1) a traditional short story that teaches a moral lesson, especially one with animals as characters; 2) a statement, or an account, that is not true.”

The second part of the defintion would seem to lend support to the use of the word “fable” to describe the Jesus story - if one doesn’t believe it.

Mr P Mattock, Abingdon, Oxfordshire.