Your article about Spain’s past opens with its Socialist government’s new law honoring Franco’s victims; continues with Spain’s uniqueness stemming from its decision to turn its back on the past, which has been shattered by the new law; and concludes with angry Spain’s bishops who are gathering at the Vatican to beatify the victims of leftist Republicans during and before the civil war (“A Rude Awakening,” October 20, 2007). Obviously, both sides are raking up painful memories rather than the Socialist government alone, but you ostensibly side with the bishops. Or the Vatican. In fact, it is the Vatican that is behind many a painful memory in countries surrounding the papal seat. It unabashedly supported a host of fascist regimes in the region, including Mussolini’s. If there is a clear beneficiary to the oblivion you seem to innocently endorse, it is unquestionably the Vatican. And you mention it only in passing as the bishops’ gathering place.