Truth and libel

The Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, in his reply on April 8 to Terry Eagleton's opinion piece published in The Jakarta Post on April 6 (John Paul has blood on his hands), understandably felt offended and called upon the Post, "in fairness to truth", to tender an apology.

An apology on the timing of Eagleton's opinion would, of course, be appropriate, as it could be viewed as offensive to those in grief, but let us not bandy about the "truth" or what is libel.

John Paul II and the Vatican have forbidden the use of condoms; in this day of the AIDS pandemic this is considered to be irresponsible by nearly all governments and certainly all health organizations. This is neither innuendo nor a subjective assumption.

To ban condoms is literally condemning millions to death. Eagleton's opinion did not even refer to using condoms for responsible family planning to help whole populations out of rampant poverty in nations like the Philippines, which is a subjective topic.

This is not an attempt to be insensitive to the grief of those peoples and groups in mourning, but only to delineate the difference between "truth" and libel.

BRIEN DOYLE, Jakarta