IN QUEST OF SAINTHOOD

I hope that Las Casas has been a saint in the eyes of God, because his human decency was his alone and is in no way transferable to the Catholic Church at this late date. If the church opposed the horrors perpetrated against American Indians (often in the name of the church itself), it did a very poor job of communicating that opposition. The question is not whether Las Casas deserves sainthood but whether the church has the right to bestow it.

SUSAN DE VILMORIN

Bonita