Broken authority
James Donnelly queries the speedy canonisation of popes (Letters, 19 March). The malaise is deeper. It starts with the canonisation of popes at all, or at least before a decent wait of half a millennium. When two popes stand together canonising two recent predecessors on a single afternoon they are not raising popes to the altar but an altar to popes. I hoped Pope Francis would end these vanities but the tide was too strong for him.

Discerning the scandal of these pomps is greatly helped by what Professor Lash argues about the ordination of women, infallibility and birth control (Letters, 19 March). The canonising of popes can be seen as a back door to arguing that their teachings are infallible.