Sir, - Why all the fuss about the latest beatifications and edicts from Rome? As a practising non-Roman Catholic (work that one out!) I see no harm at all in the unelected benevolent dictator of a worldwide autocratic organisation beatifying and canonising whomsoever he wishes. The present leader, John Paul II, has already made it into the Guinness Book of Records by being the most prolific in this regard, and it should come as no surprise to anybody that the characteristics of the persons on whom he chooses to bestow this great ecclesiastical recognition should concur broadly with the aims and tenets of the organisation of which he is the head, notwithstanding the irrefutable fact that one of his predecessors recently so honoured had views which would, today, be regarded as bordering on National Socialism.
And with regard to Cardinal Ratzinger's latest edict concerning other Christian churches and their authenticity or otherwise vis-a-vis his own fraternity - frankly, my dear Cardinal, I don't give a damn. - Yours, etc.,
D.K. Henderson, Castle Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin 3.