Labour leader’s ill-informed attack on the Pope

IN your editorial (June 28) you state it is a sign of the times for an Irish politician to attack the Pope. How right you are. The ignorant and ill-informed comments of Labour party leader Eamon Gilmore are perfectly in tune with the current wave of hysterical and equally ill-informed media attacks on Pope Benedict.

For example, the campaign against Pope Benedict launched by the New York Times has been exposed by three eminent representatives of the Jewish community — former mayor of New York Ed Koch, rabbi David Rosen and businessman-cum-philanthrophist Sam Miller. Given Mr Gilmore’s questionable political pedigree, his despicable rant against the Pope is very much par for the course. In fact, by referring erroneously to the “rainforest” speech you unwittingly vindicate the Holy Father because, as the distinguished journalist Damian Thompson pointed out at the time, the Pope’s speech did not make this comparison.

Still, let’s not annoy ourselves with such trifling facts. Mr Gilmore certainly doesn’t.