THE EDITOR, Sir:

The 79-year-old Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, gave a somewhat controversial lecture at his old University of Regensbury in Germany earlier this year. Since then, Muslims of the world cannot be persuaded to believe that his intent is not to destroy the confidence created by his predecessor Pope John Paul II, who was the very first to visit a mosque and apologised for the crimes of the Christian Church, including those committed during the crusaders war with Muslim armies during the Middle Ages.

What has this Christian man of God said? Speaking from an annotated, well-researched, carefully-prepared Papal script, the lecturer recounted a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologas II and a Persian scholar on the truths of Christianity and Islam. The Emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war Benedict said: "He said, I quote 'Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

The pope did not explicitly agree with or repudiate the comment. However, every devout Catholic knows that the pope is infallible, and he cannot err in matters of faith and morals.

I am, etc.,

GLENFORD GEORGE

WILSON, D.D.

North West, St. Elizabeth