‘Protest the Pope’ Downing Street Petition launched
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Gordon Brown urged to disassociate the government from Pope’s views
Already over 3,000 signatures
London – 22 February 2010
A Downing Street petition has been launched, urging Prime Minister
Gordon Brown to “disassociate the British government from the Pope's
intolerant views.”
The petition has been launched ahead of the Papal visit to Britain in
September this year. It has been submitted by human rights campaigner
Peter Tatchell and has already attracted over 3,000 signatures.
View the petition here:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ProtestthePope/
Note: only UK residents with a UK address are eligible to sign the petition
A petition by Mr Tatchell on the same subject last year was refused inclusion on the Downing Street website.
“The Pope opposes universal human rights. He rejects equality for women
and gay people, condemns the use of life-saving condoms, colludes with
Holocaust appeasers and he is implicated in the cover-up of child sex
abuse by Catholic priests,” said Mr Tatchell.
“A man with such objectionable views should not be honoured with an
official State Visit. If he wants to come to Britain, he should pay his
own way. The public should not be expected to cover the estimated £20
million cost. This money would be far better spent on schools and
hospitals,” added Mr Tatchell.
The petition reads:
“We the undersigned petition
the Prime Minister to disassociate the British government from the
Pope's intolerant views ahead of the Papal visit to Britain in
September 2010. We urge the Prime Minister to make it clear that his
government disagrees with the Pope's opposition to women's reproductive
rights, gay equality, embryonic stem cell research and the use of
condoms to prevent the spread of HIV. We ask the Prime Minister to
express his disagreement with the Pope’s role in the cover-up of child
sex abuse by Catholic clergy, his rehabilitation of the
Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson, and his decree paving the
way for the beatification and sainthood of the war-time Pope, Pius XII,
who stands accused of failing to speak out against the Holocaust. We
also request the Prime Minister to assure us that the Pope’s visit will
not be financed by the British taxpayer.”
Peter Tatchell has criticised at length the Pope Benedict XVI’s “illiberal” and “often extreme” stance on key social issues:
“The Pope is an opponent of women’s rights. He not only opposes the
right of women to choose to have an abortion but also their right to
contraception, which can help reduce the abortion rate,” said Mr
Tatchell.
“He opposes women’s access to IVF fertility treatment, to give childless couples the chance of parenthood.
“The Pope supports gender discrimination, including a ban on women
priests and bishops, and he wants the Catholic Church to be exempt from
equality and anti-discrimination laws that apply to everyone else.
“He has sought to block potentially life-saving embryonic stem cell
research, and he rejects the right of suffering, terminally ill people
to die with dignity at a moment of the their own free choice.
“Pope Benedict denounces the use of condoms, even to stop the spread of
HIV, and he has falsely claimed that condom usage “increases” the rate
of HIV infection. His teachings put millions of lives at risk.
See The Independent, 27 March 2009:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/lancet-says-pope-distorting-condom-facts-1655647.html
“He has acquiesced with the Vatican’s lie that condoms spread HIV and
that the virus can pass through the latex (sic). This outrageous
falsehood has been condemned as untrue and irresponsible by the World
Health Organisation and Christian Aid.
See the BBC website, 9 October 2003:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3176982.stm
“He rejects legal equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) people, and their full protection in law against homophobic and
transphobic discrimination
“The Pope has approved the Catholic Catechism, which condemns same-sex
relationships as a “grave depravity,” “intrinsically disordered” and
“contrary to natural law.”
See The Vatican website, Catechism 2357:
http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm
“In 1992, he authored a Vatican document that condemned homosexuality
as an “objective disorder” and a “strong tendency ordered towards an
intrinsic moral evil.” Rejecting the concept of gay human rights, the
document asserted that there is no “right” to laws protecting
homosexual people against discrimination, suggesting that the civil
liberties of lesbians and gay men can be “legitimately limited for
objectively disordered external conduct.”
See in full the Vatican document - Some Considerations Concerning the
Catholic Response to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of
Homosexual Persons:
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Some+considerations+concerning+the+Catholic+response+to+legislative...-a0128671084
“The Pope has attacked same-sex marriages as “evil” and vilified
supporters of gay equality as “gravely immoral.” He has also vilified
homosexual equality as a “deviant trend” and condemned same-sex love as
being “without any social value.”
“Pope Benedict colludes with anti-semitism, including with holocaust
deniers and with Catholic leaders who were complicit with the Nazi
regime.
“He rescinded the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson who, in
2008, denied key elements of the Holocaust with claims that a maximum
of 300,000 Jews died in concentration camps and that none were gassed
by the Nazis.
See the BBC website, 4 February 2009:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7869565.stm
“He has also paved the way for the beatification and eventual sainthood
of Pope Pius XII by issuing a decree in 2009 celebrating his virtues,
despite the war-time pontiff’s 1933 Concordat with Adolf Hitler and his
silence concerning the Nazi mass murder of six million Jews.
See The Guardian, 22 December 2009:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/21/pope-benedict-moves-pius-closer-sainthood
http://www.concordatwatch.eu/showkb.php?org_id=858&kb_header_id=752&order=kb_rank+ASC&kb_id=1212
“While condemning loving, consenting adult same-sex relations, the Pope
helped shield from prosecution Catholic clergy guilty of child sex
abuse. He colluded with the cover up of their crimes and with the
policy of relocating paedophile priests to other parishes, where they
often went on to commit further sexual abuse, as revealed in the 2006
BBC Panorama programme, Sex crimes and the Vatican.
See the Evening Standard, 30 September 2006:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23369148-pope-led-cover-up-of-child-abuse-by-priests.do
and see BBC Panorama 1 October 2006:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/5402928.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/5389684.stm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06qhnIwEdHE&feature=related
“Pope Benedict is complicit with human rights abuses and should not be
accorded the honour of a State Visit to Britain,” said Mr
Tatchell.