Mr John Guillaumier's letter sounds like a history of cruelty by the Popes of the Catholic Church. He forgot to take into account the culture of those times. The letter is simply Catholic-bashing. As a Maltese he is aware of the Great Siege of 1565 and the cruelty La Valette had inflicted on the huge army that invaded Malta.

Mr Guillaumier accused Pope Benedict XVI of peppering his speech with obscure quotations of Muslim violence. Did he read the speech that was published in many newspapers? I do not think so. The Pope's message raised the question of the relationship between faith and reason.

The Pope made it clear that reason is intrinsic to faith and therefore common to all authentic religious experience.