March against Pope's intolerance
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Sat 18 September, Protest the Pope
Assemble 1.30pm, Hyde Park Corner, W1
March to Downing Street for rally
Saturday 18 September 2010
Assemble 1.30pm Hyde Park Corner, London W1K 1QZ (by the start of Piccadilly)
March to Downing Street for a rally at 3.30pm
This Saturday’s Protest the Pope march and rally will condemn the
Pope’s sexism and homophobia, his collusion with the cover up of child
sex abuse, and his welcome back into the church of the
holocaust-denying bishop, Richard Williamson.
Speakers at the rally include Richard Dawkins, Catholic priest Father
Bernard Lynch, President of the National Secular Society Terry
Sanderson, Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association Andrew
Copson, LGBT human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, science writer Ben
Goldacre, sex abuse survivor, Sue Cox, Iranian secularist Maryam
Namazie and Asian feminist campaigner Pragna Patel of Southall Black
Sisters.
Protest the Pope co-organiser Peter Tatchell said:
“Pope Benedict XVI does not deserve the honour of a State Visit. He
says women are unfit to be priests, childless couples should be denied
fertility treatment and potentially life-saving embryonic stem cell
research ought to be banned. The Pope insists that rape victims should
be denied an abortion, using condoms to stop the spread of HIV is
immoral and gay people are not entitled to equal human rights. On all
these issues, Benedict is out of step with the majority of British
people, including many Catholics.
“Most shockingly, the Pope is accused of covering up child sex abuse by
clergy. In 2001, he wrote to every Catholic bishop in the world,
ordering them to report all child sex abuse cases to him in Rome. They
did. He therefore cannot claim that he was unaware of sex abuse.
Moreover, his letter to the bishops demanded that they observe ‘Papal
secrecy.’ It did not advise them to report abusers to the police.
“Even today, the Pope refuses to open the Vatican’s sex abuse files and
hand them to the relevant police forces worldwide. Many people see his
inaction as collusion with sex crimes against children. Such a person
should not be feted by our government,” said Mr Tatchell.
Details of the Protest the Pope march and rally on 18 September:
http://www.protest-the-pope.org.uk/2010/07/march-and-rally-main-event-for-the-protest-the-pope-campaign/
Info about other Protest the Pope events:
http://www.protest-the-pope.org.uk/category/events/upcoming/