Pope Benedict's personal preacher, Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, compared the accusations against the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church to the "collective violence" suffered by the Jews. Bernie Farber, of the Canadian Jewish Congress, rightly said such egregious comparisons "trivialize the history of the persecution of the Jews."

As every film buff knows, permission to trivialize the history of the persecution of the Jews extends only to Hollywood film directors such as Quentin Tarantino, who, with Inglourious Basterds, stood the history of the Holocaust on its head. Trivialize the history of the persecution of the Jews? Not the Vatican -- but Hollywood? Yes.

Orest Slepokura

Strathmore, Alta.