NELSON MANDELA will be remembered as the person who, more than any other, brought an end to apartheid, the heartless policy of “separate development” in which white, black, and South Asian South Africans were obliged to live apart.

DAVID RYAN’S reply (September 30) to my letter on Lourdes (September 24) upset me a little because of his suggestion that I regard atheism as an affliction that needs to be cured.

IN her report on Pope Benedict’s visit to Lourdes (September 16), Angela Doland sings one of the oldest refrains of the enemies of the shrine.