Protest The Pope
Say NO to an official State Visit to the UK
A vital message for the future of a liberal Europe
David Pollock
President, European Humanist Federation
35 days to go!
I hope we are all excited!
We’re going to have a state visit from the greatest moral leader in the world.
Joseph Alois Ratzinger!
He stands tall, opposing the flood of sin and vice that envelops us -
- abortion for 12-year olds who’ve been raped
- condom use merely to prevent AIDS
- use of human embryos left over from IVF in research to find cures for Alzheimer’s and other such trivial diseases
I mean to say, you have to get your priorities right!
And he does.
He tells his British bishops to stand firm against human rights and non-discrimination laws if they risk affecting Catholic prejudices – sorry, I mean doctrine.
He leads a church with inspiring bishops such as those in America who warned that a vote for Barack Obama would be a mortal sin and crimson Cardinals such as the now-retired Cormac Murphy-O’Connor who proclaimed fearlessly that the greatest of all evils is not believing in God.
You cannot fool our Pope: he knows that homosexuality is “an intrinsic moral evil” and that saving humanity from it is as important as saving the rainforests.
He cannot be silenced in standing up for righteousness in this wicked world. He sends out the ringing message that ordaining women as priests is as evil as sexually assaults on children.
So we must all get ready to greet him and give him the welcome he deserves!
Well, more of that from others later.
I want to look at some less visible ways that this Pope and his battalions are influencing the world we live in.
I am president of the European Humanist Federation and I want to tell you a story about the church and the European Union.
Now, we may have strong views for or against the EU.
But it is a fact of life and it’s getting more important by the day.
It is no longer just about markets and tariffs and trade.
It is spreading into areas much closer to our concerns -
- human rights
- medical research
- family law
- education
We ignore it at our peril.
But it is a sign of our complacency that I have to say this to you now in 2010.
The Vatican woke up to the importance of the EU long ago.
In March 1996, the Vatican sent a Note to all EU states.
It said (1) it wanted no interference by the EU with the historic privileges the church enjoyed in Member States.
It said the Vatican wanted a formal position in the EU(2).
In 1997 the Vatican got what it wanted: Germany, Italy and Austria, three states with big Christian Democrat – that is, Roman Catholic – parties,got a Declaration into the EU’s Amsterdam Treaty.
In it the EU declared that it would “respect” and would “not prejudice the status under national law of the churches” in Member States.
So the EU gave away the right to adopt non-discrimination and human rights laws unless they allowed the churches to carry on untouched.
That’s why EU law on employment equality and the draft EU directive on equality in provision of goods and services have such big exemptions for the churches – though of course our own government has made them even bigger!
The next step was in 2002.
Romano Prodi – EU Commission President & a devout Catholic – actually asked the churches for proposals for: “a structured dialogue between the Churches . . . and the European Commission”.
The Vatican got together with the other churches and they sent in their proposals in a document still officially unpublished – but it was leaked to us and now on the EHF website.
Its demands are staggering.
They wanted to be consulted in advance on all planned legislation.
They wanted regular dialogue with EU policy staff.
They wanted working sessions “on . . . specific issues whenever the churches . . . have a particular concern”.
They wanted personal meetings with the President of the European Commission
And they wanted a liaison office inside the Commission’s offices, in order to develop a “partnership” with it.
In effect, they wanted a licence to interfere in the European Union whenever and wherever they wished.
And, guess what? They have got everything they wanted – and more – except for the physical office inside the Commission secretariat.
In the endless debates about the abortive European Constitution they lost the battle over putting Christianity into the preamble – but that only served to distract attention – as they wanted – from the war that they won – the victory of getting an EU treaty undertaking to hold a regular dialogue with the churches.
So it’s there in the Lisbon Treaty – “Recognising (it says) their identity and their specific contribution – whatever that is – the Union shall maintain an open, transparent and regular dialogue with these churches and organisations.”
And still the Vatican is not satisfied.
After the Lisbon Treaty was agreed, the President of the European Catholic Bishops went on record about the privileges they already had. He listed:
- “seminars” on fundamental issues for EU officials with the church; and
- what he called “the traditional talks” they had every six months with the Government newly taking on the Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers – something they hadn’t even asked for!
- and “the . . . key talks” that have taken place annually since 2005 when the presidents of the European Parliament and the European Commission get together with leading Jewish, Muslim and Christian representatives. These unreported talks – forget about transparency – deal with important secular topics – like economic policy or climate change.
But the president of the Catholic bishops went on to say (and I quote):
“These talks are indeed necessary but they alone are in our view not enough to satisfy the offer of an open, transparent and regular dialogue. . .”
The Vatican wants more!
“This” – he said – “is why we should now start giving real thought to the form of this dialogue.”
This dialogue is not the ordinary consultation the EU has with everyone.
It puts the Vatican in a special position, with privileged access to the very top levels of the EU at the earliest stage, before any proposals reach public consultation.
And though the other churches – and for that matter the EHF – are nominally in the same position, it is the Vatican, with its wealth, its diplomatic service, its 1000 years of involvement in international politics, its political parties, its willingness where necessary to use brute force that is set up to exploit its Treaty privileges.
So when we look to the future and we see the EU getting into education policy, think about a Directive that entrenches subsidies for Catholic schools and universities.
And as the EU gets into research policy, think about how funding may be cut off from genetic research.
And as the EU influences family law, think of the Vatican’s pernicious policies on gays or on abortion.
And with the EU’s growing involvement in overseas aid, think of the Vatican getting a Bush-like ban on condoms for family planning or AIDS prevention.
The protest that will greet our dishonourable visitor next month will be no relic of an out-of-date anti-clerical anti-religious dogma.
It has a vital message for the future of a liberal Europe.
As religion plays less and less of a role in ordinary people’s lives – as even the Roman Catholic Church is (as the Economist reported in detail just last week) “hollowing out” from within and suffering “massive dissent” – even at this time the Vatican is consolidating its position in the corridors of power, claiming the right to impose its values on the rest of us.
It is our responsibility to demonstrate what is happening and to prevent it.
Let’s have a secular Europe now! Protest the Pope!
David Pollock,
President, European Humanist Federation
Richmond, Thursday 12th August 2010
(1) to “maintain the relations between the Churches and the States as they are within the Member States”
(2) It proposed “root[ing] the relations between Church and State in the Community Law”
I knew something of the Vatican’s medieval attitudes and policies,but what you have just revealed is even more deeply shocking. I strongly agree with you that secular values are under threat and we need to fight back.
Dr Michael Quigley
Cambridge
IT’S A C
graham.turner1@hotmail.co.uk
ONSPIRACY
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lets haveABIG protesta gainst the popeand vatican
send the link to this site to all your cntacts and ask them to do the same in turn
i agree
lets have A BIG protest against the pope and vatican
send the link to this site to all your contacts and ask them to do the same in turn