(The following letter appeared in a recent issue of The Herald in Glasgow, Scotland. The writer, Dr. Stuart D. B. Picken is a university professor in Japan who is international adviser to Tsubaki Grand Shrine. Dr. Picken divides his time between Japan and Scotland.)

I wrote the letter as a response to an article about the Vatican and the possible next candidate for Pope, which claimed that the Holy See was the oldest continuously occupied office in the world. The article also claimed that the Papacy was one of the agents that helped to create the modern world.

I did not address these issues, but rather dealt simply with the point that the tone of the entire article was Europa- centreed. It had no image of Asia, and considered the world to begin and end in Europe. I pointed out that the Imperial House of Japan is the world's oldest continuous, and surviving monarchy, and that Ise and Tsubaki Grand Shrine have two thousand years of history behind each of them. The achievements of the western world may have been impressive, but to make claims about the Vatican that are patently wrong and inaccurate, is quite improper. It demonstrates, however, the limitations of the western mind in its perception of the world, and of Asia, particularly Japan and China.

Historically, the latter claim is nonsense. The Vatican has been one of the greatest opponents of the creation of the modern world, resisting birth control, impeding democracy by supporting fascist regimes, and suppressing women.