DAVID Quarrie jumps on his Soapbox too hastily (Letters, April 13).
Prince Charles did not "shake hands" with Mugabe in the normal way.
Rather, in the context of the late Pope's requiem mass, he exchanged "the peace" with him, looking him in the eye and praying that God's peace be with him.
Whenever we do this, we are all praying for God's peace, on God's terms, in God's time - not for the other's sense of their own comfort and success.
We may not subjectively wish that upon our enemies. But deep down we know we need our enemies to pray the same for us.
The politics of this issue cuts both ways: it means that Mugabe wished the very peace of God upon Charles, unelected bastion of the former white colonialism though he may be. This must have risked undermining all his claims about hateful Britain's hostility to Zimbabwean "inalienable rights" and "patriotism".
Patrick Morrow,
Stephenson Way, York.
Updated: 10:09 Friday, April 15, 2005
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