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Saturday 3 April 2010

Putting image before the suffering of children

My fellow blogger Roy Saich is among the latest to call for Ratzo’s proposed visit to the UK to be knocked on the head.

He runs the Humanists website, one of the oldest-established sites providing information on the humanist tradition, and says the Catholic Church is putting its own image before the suffering of children.

A press release says:

It is the wealthiest institution in the world. It holds millions of pounds in reserves of stocks, shares and bonds. Its headquarters in Italy is recognised as a separate nation state in its own right. It does not pay its proper share of taxes, but the British people are being required to pay for its chief to visit the country and will pay £20 million pounds for the privilege.

This is the same organisation which claims its own rules, which it calls “cannon law”, have precedence over national legislation and it fails to recognise human rights. Its whole reason for existence is based on myths. It puts its own public image before the sufferings of children.

Yet the Prime Minister and other British political party leaders want this organisation to run more schools, paid for out of our taxes. Now Gordon Brown has said in his Easter message that it is the “conscience of our country”. Has Mr Brown never heard of moral philosophy?

Meanwhile, the leader of Protestant Christians worldwide, Dr Rowan Williams, has rightly pointed out that the Catholic church as lost all credibility in the Republic of Ireland over its failure to address the issue of child abuse by its priests, and that he, Rowan Williams, sees no need to be in commune with the Roman church.

Humanists may well ask why the Pope has been asked to make a State Visit to this country at public expense at all. The invitation should be withdrawn.

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