Protest The Pope

Say NO to an official State Visit to the UK

Supporters

The Campaign

The following organisations are supporters of the Protest the Pope campaign:

  • Atheism UK
  • British Humanist Association
  • Central London Humanist Group
  • Council of ex-Muslims of Britain
  • Doctors4Justice
  • Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association
  • Humanist Association of Northern Ireland
  • Humanist Society of Scotland
  • International Humanist and Ethical Union
  • Liverpool Humanist Group
  • The Marches Secularists
  • National Secular Society
  • North London Humanists
  • One Law for All
  • OutRage!
  • Plymouth Humanist Group
  • The Richmond upon Thames LGBT Forum
  • Southall Black Sisters
  • South West London Humanists
  • Women Against Fundamentalism
  • Young Freethought

If your organisation wishes to join or support the campaign please contact: support@protest-the-pope.org.uk

Members of the campaign agree the following view:

  • That the Pope, as a citizen of Europe and the leader of a religion with many adherents in the UK, is of course free to enter and tour our country.
  • However, as well as a religious leader, the Pope is a head of state and the state and organisation of which he is head has been responsible for:
    1. opposing the distribution of condoms and so increasing large families in poor countries and the spread of AIDS
    2. promoting segregated education
    3. denying abortion to even the most vulnerable women
    4. opposing equal rights for lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender people
    5. failing to address the many cases of abuse of children within its own organisation.
    6. rehabilitating the holocaust denier bishop Richard Williamson and the appeaser of Hitler, the war-time Pope, Pius XII.
  • The state of which the Pope is the head has also resisted signing many major human rights treaties and has formed its own treaties (‘concordats’) with many states which negatively affect the human rights of citizens of those states.
  • As a head of state, the Pope is an unsuitable guest of the UK government and should not be accorded the honour and recognition of a state visit to our country.