Madam, - The Vatican under Pope Benedict continues to canonise good and holy clergy such as Blessed Charles of Mount Argus, who worked with the poor but who did not rock the boat by challenging the structures which created poverty in the society of their times.
After 27 years we still await a move by the present Pope to acknowledge the greatness of the late Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who was not afraid to oppose the unjust structures in his country which created and sustained poverty but had the audacity to criticise the then President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, for arming the elite in El Salvador in their suppression of the poor.
Perhaps President McAleese, when she visits Pope Benedict on March 23rd - the eve of the 27th anniversary of Romero's assassination - would remind him that we want good and strong outspoken priests to be canonised besides the good and humble ones who seem to be the exemplars that the Pope wants his clergy to emulate. - Yours, etc,
BRENDAN BUTLER, The Moorings, Malahide, Co Dublin.