4 APRIL 1981, Page 18

Archbishop Romero

Sir: Edward Norman states in his review of The Pope's Divisions by Peter Nichols that the Archbishop had been a persistent supporter of Marxist revolutionary groups (21 March). In private talks and in the lengthy sermon he gave on violence during my first visit to El Salvador in December 1978, he condemned violence from whatever source. He did demonstrate a consistent concern for the poor and the oppressed.

At the Archbishop's funeral, I was told that his appeal to the troops to lay down their arms was not incitement to mutiny in any sense that could be understood from Edward Norman's words. It was a call to avoid further senseless slaughter of the unarmed and the innocent.

Peter Bottomley

House of Commons, London SW1