Sir, - The Pope's recent apology fails to mention wrongs done to theologians like Leonarda Boff of Brazil who were trying to follow and spell out the consequences of the Latin American Catholic Church's preferential option for the poor. Some 20 years after his assassination, the cause for canonisation of Archbishop Romero of San Salvador, is on the slow track while that of Mother Theresa and Padre Pio are on the fast track. This is not to impugn the good lives of Mother Theresa and Padre Pio nor indeed is it a case of sour grapes, for already the people of Latin America refer to Archbishop Romero as "St. Romero of the Americas".
The most the Vatican can say about the assassinated bishop is that he was a "zealous priest". Indeed even in Romero's lifetime there had been a recommendation by a senior Vatican official that an apostolic administrator be named for Romero's archdiocese - Romero would remain archbishop in name only while another would govern. Romero's denouncement of US military aid to El Salvador in a homily in 1980 - a month before his murder - was what really incensed and alarmed both the Vatican Secretariat of State and the Carter Administration.
The Pope seems to have a prejudice against any church person or theologian who denounces institutionalised injustice which is the primary cause of violence and conflict in society. - Yours, etc., Brendan Butler,
Swords, Co Dublin.