Freedom of the press

Congratulations for publishing Prof. T. Eagleton's excellent article John Paul has blood on his hands, which I fully agree with. But you should not have apologized for fulfilling your right of freedom of the press (as in your April 8 edition) just because the Ambassador of the Holy See requested so!

Nowadays your editor is a lucky man (or woman): During the Middle Ages he/she had been tortured to renounce his/her faith and finally burned at the stake by the Court of the Holy Catholic Inquisition.

May I remind the Ambassador of the hundred of thousands killed in "The Name of Jesus Christ" during the Crusades? May I remind the Ambassador of the scandalous blessing of German war-tanks , bombers and other weapons by representatives of the Catholic Church during World War II? And may I remind him of the uncounted (and mostly unpunished) pedophile crimes committed by catholic priests all over the world in recent days?

MICHAEL BEER, Amlapura, Bali