Madam, - Many Catholics, including several Cardinals, were distressed to see Presidents Silvio Berlusconi and George Bush paying fulsome homage to Pope Benedict XVI and being received by him as specially honoured guests.
Both men have reason to be grateful to the Pope. Berlusconi would not be president except for the two-year papal campaign against Romano Prodi's government. In a partisan speech to the Italian bishops, which also caused much unease, Benedict hailed a new day in Italian politics marked by closer co-operation between church and state. He seems to take Berlusconi at face value as a knight of Christian principle.
Nor would Bush be president if the then Cardinal Ratzinger had not intervened at his request in the 2004 election by urging bishops to crack down on pro-abortion politicians.
When the Pope embraces the president as a champion of moral values, with no criticism of his policies on war, torture and capital punishment, he allows him to claim blanket approval of his unsavoury record and hands him a trump card that will be used to help John McCain win the US presidency. - Yours, etc,
Rev JOSEPH S. O'LEARY,
Sophia University,
Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo,
JAPAN.