Does Dawkins intend to arrest Pope Benedict or is it 'The Greatest Show on Earth'

16 April 2010

Richard Dawkins has said that he has taken legal advice from  human rights lawyers and he intends to arrest Pope Benedict for crimes against humanity when the Pope comes to Britain because of his alleged involvement with covering up child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. Excuse my cynicism, but it is hard to image that Richard Dawkins real motivation is about law and order. It is impossible not to agree with media speculation that the covering up of child abuse undertaken by Roman Catholic priests is anything other than preposterous and if it is true that Pope Benedict is implicated, this should be investigated independently and action must be taken. It goes without saying that any priest who abuses any child, but particularly where his charges are vulnerable children, such as a group of deaf boys in care who would be unlikely to be able to protect or alert others, is particularly sickening. Anyone who does not recognise their responsibility to prevent this sort of abuse should not be in any leadership position, but especially one where pastoral care from cradle to the grave is its mandate. It is up to political leaders and followers of the Roman Catholic faith to call its leadership to account on this issue and ensure that justice is done, and  that not only takes action when abuse is highlighted but critically appraises itself by examining  its culture in order to prevent reoccurrences.

Certainly the long tradition of celibacy must surely be scrutinized for its potential to be at the root of the problem, along with all of the disproportionate attention given by the Vatican of normal sexuality that seem to dominate much of the church's teaching. Whilst Roman Catholicism is worrying about pre-marital sex, divorce and abortion, the dogma regarding contraception has some morally abhorrent consequences, in particular the unwillingness to accept the use of condoms even for the prevention of HIV spread. Where is the justice, and love for that matter, in not protecting women and children from a disease that makes them so ill and wasted that they are unable to care for their young ones, some of whom they have passed on the infection, and eventually dying, all with a stigma attached to them, and so absolutely preventable with the correct education, guidance and compassion.
It is hard to see where the Gospel of love of Jesus is manifest in a rule that allows this to continue.  Despite some priests discomfort and turning a blind eye; confession and a couple of hail Mary's should do the trick. Many Catholics are acutely aware of the rules they disregard as outdated, illogical and ultimately harmful. Most Catholics ignore the rules on contraception, they must do because very few families have 8 or 10 kids anymore, and an active pro-life movement exists within the church, but it appears that some lives matter more than others. The hypocrisy is shocking; this is an issue that has been around for a long time and it is time it was challenged from within; Dawkins has not sought to make this a crime against humanity.

The enormous problem the Church now faces is the exposure of its lack of moral authority, since the recent revelation that Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict's former name) tried to prevent the defrocking of a paedophile priest 'for the good of the church'.  Maybe it really is just an abysmal ignorance. This may be true. I talked to a friend over dinner; a priest, still working hard in ministry despite being a Diabetic 75 years old. His honesty about the issue of child abuse in the clergy is profoundly shocking. He said 'do you know, I think we have just failed to understand how harmful a crime it is'. What surprises me is that I think that this is true in one sense and appalling in another. The truth is, the clergy have completely failed to engage with this issue and that's why they didn't realise; also being patriarchal, it is just possible that it lacks the feminine perspective that may be helpful in order to see what a problem could be stored by failing to take remedial action. Are priest so conditioned by their culture that they did not seeing anything particularly abnormal; merely a nuisance that it pushed aside in deference to more important moral considerations like divorce, contraceptive, abortion, homosexuality, female priests and so on. However it is difficult to accept that the church has been obsessively concerned with preventing sexually deviant behaviour such as using a condom but this issue paedophilia was regarded as ' not so harmful'(apologies to my friend). 

I have drifted away from the subject of Richard Dawkins and his intention to arrest the Pope. He has joined forces with another atheist writer Christopher Hitchin's and sought out human rights lawyers to charge Pope Benedict with crimes against humanity, and although calling him to account over his actions is necessary, arresting him in the UK does seem a bit of a sledgehammer to crack a nut, not to mention with potential embarrassment to the UK politically, if the evidence against the Pope were to be undermined when the due process of law was underway.

What is interesting is that Richard Dawkin's not only has a new book out next month, ironically called 'the Greatest Show on Earth', his last book, 'The God Delusion' which is a fascinating and entertaining explanation of evolution, referred very lightly to boys experiences of priestly groping in a similar manner to the way Alan Bennett portrayed of the popular teacher Hector, in 'The History Boys'.  Here teenage boys laugh pityingly at Hector, who is rather too fond of touching their private parts, rather than feel deeply distressed by the experience, they actually take it in turns to ride pillion on Hector's motor bike, in order to share the apparently mild burden of being groped amongst each other. In the God Delusion, Dawkin's vilifies lawyers who would seek to compare this type of crime with murder. This does seem to rather contradict his personal crusade for charging Pope Benedict with 'crimes against humanity'. Even if guilty, are Pope Benedict's crimes similar to the genocides in Rwanda or the Balkans? I know sins are difficult to measure, but an atheist does not measure sins, he measures crimes and consequent justice, and the legal system does not lock up and throw away the key even for paedophiles, incompetent social workers, or petty burglary. No Mr Dawkins; the truth is this you have a book you are promoting that will be released next month called 'The Greatest Show on Earth' and this is the easiest way to get free media coverage. However you are right. We all have inherited 'The Selfish Gene'.

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