Madam, - It is disgraceful that Pope Benedict, on his birthday, allowed himself to be regaled in splendour by President George Bush, responsible for some of the worst war crimes of this century. Can anyone imagine Jesus Christ adopting such a similar servile attitude?
Where has the angry Christ of the temple gone, the Christ who confronted hypocrisy and the distortion of religion in his day by the forceful cleansing of his Father's house? Has so-called quiet Vatican diplomacy emasculated the radical Jesus? - Yours, etc,
BRENDAN BUTLER, The Moorings, Malahide, Co Dublin.
Madam, - This week, George W. Bush said to Pope Benedict: "In a world where some treat life as something to be debased and discarded, we need your message that all human life is sacred, and that each of us is willed, each of us is loved, and each of us is necessary."
Bush has acknowledged in the past that innocent people are dying in Iraq. It is believed that the number of documented civilian casualties in Iraq stands at approximately 90,000. Does he consider these prematurely extinguished lives as sacred, loved and necessary too? - Yours, etc,
ADAM TRODD, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.