Comment: Why should I pay for the Pope?
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The Pope, the Holocaust and human rights
By Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner
Jewish Chronicle - London UK - 7 September 2010
http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/comment/37968/comment-why-should-i-pay-pope
I was born in 1952, seven years after the end of the Second World War.
My awareness of the Holocaust is one of the factors that spurred me to
work for human rights, to ensure that such monstrous crimes never
happen again.
The Nazi genocide remains an ever-present influence, including on my
views concerning next week’s State Visit to Britain by Pope Benedict
XVI. I am shocked that he has embraced Catholics accused of being soft
on Nazism.
Last year, the Pope rescinded the excommunication of the
holocaust-denying Bishop, Richard Williamson. He has called on
Williamson to recant but he has not revoked his readmission to the
Catholic church. A holocaust denier remains within the faith, with the
Pope’s blessing.
Benedict wants to make a saint of Pope Pius XII, despite the war-time
pontiff’s failure to speak out publicly against the Holocaust. His
refusal to open the Vatican files suggests that Pius’s record is less
than honourable – and unworthy of sainthood.
These are two of many actions by Pope Benedict that call into question
his moral authority. He says women are unfit to be priests, childless
couples should be denied fertility treatment, embryonic stem cell
research is murder, using condoms to stop the spread of HIV is immoral
and gay people are not entitled to equal human rights. Most shockingly,
the Pope is accused of colluding with the cover up of child sex abuse
by priests. Even today, he has not handed the Vatican’s sex abuse files
to the police.
Part of Benedict’s visit to Britain is being funded by the taxpayer. A
Comres poll found that 77% of the public oppose us footing the bill.
After all, we don’t fund visits by other religious leaders, such as the
Chief Rabbi of Israel. Why should the Pope receive privileged financial
support from our taxes?
Benedict’s defenders point out that he is a head of state. But heads of
state are normally leaders of countries. The Vatican is not a country
and it is not recognised as a country by the UN. Benedict is only a
head of state because the anti-Semitic fascist dictator, Benito
Mussolini, granted this status to Pope’s in 1929 as part of a treaty
with the Vatican. It is a legacy of fascism and a historical anomaly.
By all means let Catholics welcome the Pope to Britain and fund his
visit. But I don’t think he should be honoured with a State Visit at
taxpayer’s expense.