TIMESONLINE
RICHARD DAWKINS, the atheist campaigner, is planning a legal ambush to have the Pope arrested during his state visit to Britain “for crimes against humanity”.
Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the atheist author, have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church.
The pair believe they can exploit the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, when he visited Britain in 1998.
Found by Misanthropic Scott on Cage Match.
woopee frkin doo
who gives a damn what this self absorbed idiot thinks
oh please do! I would love to see Dawkins embarassed on an international scale.
In the case of political citizen’s arrest, the arrester goes to jail rather than the arrestee. That is what I have seen anyway.
Dawkins is an idiot.
#1 “who gives a damn what this self absorbed idiot thinks”
The Pope or Dawkins?
Well, I doubt much will come of it, but the publicity will be worth it. Not that most of the Catholics are ready to give up on the church despite the scandals. Most sheep remain sheep all their lives. Some, like my Dad, continue to believe in God, but won’t have anything to do with organized religion, which they properly equate with organized crime.
IIRC, wasn’t Benedict somewhat reluctant to be elected Pope? And not specifically because of the sex scandals. While our local evil doer, Roger Mahony is required to retire at 70, the Pope is stuck in the job for life. The position does require a lot of public appearances and such that can be demanding on an aging person.
The church is too big to fail – really.
Heck, even Japan Emperor Hirohito was off limits to Allied surrender. Clearly, the Church is much more powerful than Japan. I even knew that before I watched Angels and Demons 🙂
Sounds like a good idea to me.
What would the Catholic cult do if something like this actually did happen?
Isn’t an ambush supposed to remain secret until it is sprung on your opponent?
Mr Dawkins, et al, if you really cared you would be calling for the one’s that committed the actual crime to be punished more so than some leader of a belief system you disagree with. Anything else is missing the tragedy of this story and grand standing for your own personal gain.
http://richarddawkins.net/articleComments,5415,Richard-Dawkins-I-will-arrest-Pope-Benedict-XVI,Marc-Horne—-TimesOnline,page2#478580
He’s not going to, but thinks it’s a good idea.
The Pope is the head of a nation state. He travels under diplomatic immunity. Dawkins knows this yet he still blathers on.
It amazes me how most atheists spend more time thinking and talking about God than your average Southern Baptist.
Well, Dawkins won’t be attempting to arrest the pope, but someone should.
Covering up a crime is illegal and should be prosecuted.
If there ever is a second coming of Christ he will probably kick the Pope in the balls while shouting: “What the fuck have you done to my flock!”
#10 Southern Baptists can think???
So why do the sheep, including our fine representatives posting here, overly associate mere mortals with god?
The whole “church” thing, especially they “as god is in heaven” organized Catholic Church all seems like (very) false idolatry to me.
Do you faithful not see the flim-flam or do you accept/enjoy/revel in it as some sort of exercise?? If you do take a moment, the Catholic Church does appear to be a likely model of heaven. One guy at the top telling you what to do while he goes off and does just the opposite.
Religion. Yea, its like that.
Tax religions, solve the budget problems. Do it now.
Is his predecessor’s fatwa on the Queen still in effect?
Will he be pounced on by anti-terrorist units when he lands?
The last pope got in – but the UK has done a lot to tighten up on banning foreign visitors since then.
The pope does bear responsibilty for the crimes committed by priests under his authority. Diplomatic immunity aside, this scandal should be grounds for both the U.K. and the United States to rescind its diplomatic relationship with the Vatican. Especially now in view of the mounting evidence that Cardinal Ratzinger did indeed know about pedophile priests and personally authorized their actions over a period of decades. Attorneys representing some California victims have produced letters written by the Cardinal in the 1980s to the diocese advising that the priests be relocated to different parishes, but allowed to continue with their duties “for the good of the church” even after church leaders tried to defrock the offenders and expel them from the priesthood.
How is this NOT a criminal act? Why are so many comments here attacking Dawkins and Hithcens and ignoring the crimes of the pope? He’s not infallible, he’s not divine, he’s a charlatan and should be treated as any other criminal. I’d put him in a room with a dozen or more of the people who were abused as children in catholic churches and let THEM mete out justice.
A quibble. The Pope should not be held liable for what a few ((too many but still a few)) wayward priests did. He should be held liable for what he himself did which you fairly covered.
Let the Inquisition Proceed with no indulgences allowed!
#1 – PMitchell,
woopee frkin doo
who gives a damn what this self absorbed idiot thinks
Please be clear. Do you mean the Dope or Dawkins?
sweeeet, if he pulls it off, i hope they decide to hang the pope. I’ll be their johnny on the spot with “Pope on a Rope” memorabilia.
-One can only hope.. ;p
-s
Its all just a publicity stunt, you know, like ‘free’ elections in the US…
yea…. good luck with that.
Richard Dawkins is God!
On behalf of athiests, Dick, thanks for setting our image back 20 years just as we were slowly becoming a tiny bit more accepted.
Seems like a lot of pedophiles posting here are more angry about offending the offender than those that he offended!
Catholicism has surpassed Scientology in the crappy religion department. Of all the BS that is said about Hubbard’s horde, I haven’t heard of them sexually abusing their children! Yet….
#24 I prefer to not be accepted. If we become accepted than what makes us different than the “accepted” religious folks.
#24, #26,
I just want to live in a rational world. Arresting the Dope for covering up the crimes of pedophiles seems logical, morally correct, and just. Is there something really wrong with that? If the church really wanted to teach morality, they would start from within their own doors … and the top is a great place to set an example.
#27, so your way to get to a rational world is to make a huge public stink over arresting someone who is almost certainly diplomatically immune and definitely politically immune from this kind of grandstanding (which, no doubt UTTERLY COINIDENTALLY, will push Dawkins’ book sales). You’ll create sympathy for the Poop just as his own followers are beginning to doubt him.
The best thing to be done is to let these investigations bleed the church dry of followers and money in their natural course. Catholicism is already in sharp decline and this horrible story is hastening the death spiral. It’s entirely possible that there will be effective charges at some point after the evidence builds, is documented more thoroughly and lawsuits proceed in various countries.
But attempting to arrest him prematurely and ineffectively using dodgy legal tricks will make real charges less likely and less effective.
And before you ask, yes, I’d be ok with letting these people go free in the long run in return for the end of Catholicism.
PR stunt, doomed to suffer the same fate as attempts to arrest Bush Administration staffers abroad – a wall of security and politically compromised courts and police. Not going to happen, people.
#28 – crap,
I’m not really concerned with when to arrest the Dope. I’m just saying that I think the evidence warrants his arrest. If the time is not yet right, that’s fine. But, it won’t happen without anyone suggesting it. No police force is likely to take this up on their own without world opinion pushing for it.
As for trading death of the church for an effective diplomatic pardon, tough call. I want the death of all religion. The catholic church is no longer even the worst of the bunch. But, I think letting religious figures go free because they are religious figures is every bit as bad as letting corporate CEOs (such as the CEO of Union Carbide) go free because he is a CEO.
Both are wrong.
We should not put anyone above the law. These are significant and violent crimes we’re talking about and the Dope is an accessory to them after the fact. I think he should be arrested as soon as a case can be made for a grand jury hearing.
Dawkins should not be involved since he is not a police officer. But, someone has to advocate the proper prosecution of criminal charges. I’ve not heard anyone else doing so yet. We need to make some noise on this to make it happen.