Stench of Evil Pope to Meet with Queen Elizabeth II, by JR Russell, Lez Get Real, March 16, 2010

" Stench of Evil" Pope to Meet with Queen Elizabeth II

By JR Russell
Lez Get Real
March 16, 2010

http://lezgetreal.com/?p=28476

UNITED KINGDOM -- The taxpayers of the United Kingdom are about to pay the princely sum of £20 million to accommodate the Roman Catholic pontiff whose church has been rocked by proven rape and violent physical abuse scandals for years.

On September 16th, Queen Elizabeth II will welcome Pope Benedict XVI into Holyrood in Edinburgh. The Pope is also expected to visit Lambeth, Westminster, Glasgow and possibly Coventry, where he is expected to beatify the 19th century convert, John Henry Newman.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: "I cannot believe that we are lauding the head of an organisation that not only insults and denigrates homosexuals, tries to restrict the rights of women by banning contraception and abortion, but deliberately lies about the effectiveness of condoms in the fight against AIDS.

"This invitation is a rebuke to all those Britons who are incensed by the horrific revelations that are emerging daily about the Vatican's activities. The government should be sharply criticising rather than welcoming this man."

From PinkNews.co.uk

Moreover, there has been accumulating proof in recent days about the complicity of the Vatican in covering up incidents of child sexual and physical abuse in several different countries.

Pope Benedictus XVI
Photo by Sergey Kozhukhov

Arguments that have been the subject of debate and skepticism for a decade are falling down around the pope as people reveal that he did not, in fact, manage things from a distance.

The Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, who once worked at the Vatican Embassy in Washington and became an early and well-known whistle-blower on sexual abuse in the church, said the vicar general's claim was not credible.

"Nonsense," said Father Doyle, who has served as an expert witness in sexual abuse lawsuits. "Pope Benedict is a micromanager. He's the old style. Anything like that would necessarily have been brought to his attention. Tell the vicar general to find a better line. What he's trying to do, obviously, is protect the pope."

From The New York Times

In 1980, while the pope was Archbishop of Munich, a priest was "transferred" for therapy and then resumed into serving as a priest. The church insists the pope had no idea what was going on, but the records prove that the transfer for therapy was approved by the Archbishop. No police report was made by the diocese, despite the therapy being undertaken as the result of accusations of child sexual abuse. That priest was later convicted of assaulting a child after he was put back into pastoral care.

Pope Benedict XVI has also not yet accepted the resignations of Irish Bishops implicated by official inquiries in the cover up of the child abuse incidents.

The church has hit back at the media, claiming unfair coverage and saying that abuse is far more common outside the Roman Catholic Church than within it.

We didn't rape that many children, says church, so what's the big deal?

Now in Italy, claims of abuse are starting to roll in as well.

Church officials in the northern Italian diocese of mainly German-speaking Bolzano have set up an email hot line for victims of abuse by priests.

A local newspaper has already carried an interview with a man who claimed he was abused by priests at a local school. Luis Benedikter, spoke of a "climate of fear" at the unidentified school during the 1950s, which he attended for three years until he was 15.

Mr Benedikter said:"The director of the choir would beat us with a whip, hitting us in the face and on the hands. There was an atmosphere of crude violence and intimidation. It was physical and psychological abuse."

From The Telegraph

In addition to these horrifying revelations, the Vatican has spoken harshly about the UK's equality laws, condemning efforts to ensure that people are given equal opportunities in life and increasing the standard of living for the UK population.

State visits should be reserved for people deserving of respect. The taxpayers would surely have no problem paying to host someone they could truly hold in high esteem, who would serve as an example of virtue to which we should all aspire. The pope is not one of those people.

The only situation in which UK taxpayers should find themselves paying to accommodate people involved in the cover up of rape and physical abuse should be upon conviction, at Her Majesty's pleasure, and not as part of a glitzy state visit.

As a Commonwealth citizen, I am sickened that my Queen is preparing to host the man about whom it has been quite rightly written, "[his] entire career has the stench of evil about it." You want to see at what point the monarchy truly becomes irrelevant? The day the Queen hosts the man who has done everything in his power to protect the assets and influence of the church at the expense of the faithful, that is the day, for me, that the monarchy becomes useless and moreover charmless. And I've always been a fan.

I know a woman in the UK who has just been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. To prevent further deterioration, nerve damage and paralysis, she needs an operation that will cost her thousands and is not covered under the NHS. I'm pretty sure she's not alone. I think £20 million pounds towards life-saving procedures would be an appropriate way to spend the taxpayer's money. What about you?

And if Pope Benedict XVI really believed what that big ole book says he's supposed to believe, he'd agree with me.