The Pope should be arrested

The British biologist and avowed atheist Richard Dawkins and the atheist author Christopher Hitchens want to have Pope Benedict XVI arrested and charged with crimes against humanity when he visits the UK in September. The daily The Times applauds this plan: "That Church itself plainly states that concealing crime by silence is wrong, and that it is worse still to counsel and command others to commit the same sin of silence and concealment. Yet this crime, this sin, was being regularly urged on children, parents and parishioners by men in authority: the solemn clerical authority which purports to draw its privilege direct from the eternal Truth and to see into the depths of the heart. It is an all-male authority, too, in which the greenest young priest outranks an experienced nun or devout mother. It has been the perfect screen for wickedness. ... The Vatican still hasn't grasped the full corruption of that."

» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Weltanschauung, » United Kingdom, » Global
All available articles from » Libby Purves

» To the complete press review of Monday, April 12, 2010