I admire Joe Zammit’s tenacity on the subject of homosexuality and I applaud his considerable scholarship in marshalling both modern and ancient texts to justify and support his distaste. I have perceived, however, in his most recent edicts to both The Times and The Sunday Times, an increasing reliance on lengthy quotation and a diminishing of his willingness to write “in the first person”. This change of tactic has been counter-productive, as his recent magisterial missives have lost the entertainment value and sensationalism of the earlier letters written from the heart, not the scholar’s head.

The world is currently reeling in the discovery and implementation of a new global concept of inclusiveness and equality. Primogeniture is finished. A black man can be President, maybe Pope. Women can be soldiers and leaders of nations. An ex-prisoner can lead South Africa. A double-amputee can compete not only in the Paralympics but in the Olympics. The International Monetary Fund can be headed by a woman. The nations of Europe have united. The Church of England has female clerics, and allows gay bishops. Thanks to social media, the globe has become a village. The world order is irresistibly changing.

History will see our age as a second Renaissance, triggered by the world’s revulsion at the atrocities of the First and Second World Wars, which has thankfully led us to reject the old mores of superiority, colonialism and doctrine.

Of course, in any global convolution, confusion and nostalgia will be widespread. But I can assure Mr Zammit that we are witnessing the birth of a better world order for all and I advise him to close his dusty tomes and to go with the flow of his fellow, feeling, man.