Apology From The Pope

Sir, - Last Sunday, Pope John Paul II asked for God's forgiveness for the Catholic Church's past errors and failings, including…

Sir, - Last Sunday, Pope John Paul II asked for God's forgiveness for the Catholic Church's past errors and failings, including past sins against Jews, heretics, women and native peoples. In reality it was an apology to the vast majority of the human race.

Vincent Browne was not impressed (March 15th) and neither was I, for the Vatican continues to sup with those who have committed atrocities against many of those named in his apology.

As recently as the 1970s it turned a blind eye to the crimes committed by the military in Argentina and Chile against women, Jews and native peoples. A widely distributed report from the United Nations in 1978 on the fate of the indigenous people in Chile stated "on the day of the coup the big landowners, military and Carabineros started a great manhunt against the Mapuche". The silence of the Vatican then was in stark contrast to their efforts last year to secure the release of Gen Augusto Pinochet. In September last, Pope John Paul II blessed the Chilean naval training vessel Esmeralda, a ship used as a detention and torture centre in the early months of the coup in Chile.

But let us not forget those heroic members of his Church whose work with the poor and indigenous people of Latin America led them down the inevitable path of Liberation Theology. And let us remember that this same apologist continues to silence many of these men and women whose actions, rather than words, have endeavoured to make a small atonement for the past atrocities of their church. - Yours, etc.,

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John T. Kavanagh, Braemor Road, Dublin 14.