Appalled

I get the impression somehow that the fuss over that tongue-in-cheek Foreign Office memo comes as a rather welcome relief to the Catholic hierarchy here in the UK. After all the paedophile scandals, finally the various assorted clergy can return to doing what they do best: aggrieved pomposity.

The Bishop of Nottingham said, if anything, it was "appalling manners".

The Rt Rev Malcolm McMahon said: "I think it's a lot worse that we invite someone into our country - a person like the Pope - and then he's treated in this way.

"I think it's appalling manners more than anything else."...

The UK's ambassador to the Vatican, Francis Campbell, has met senior officials of the Holy See to express regret on behalf of the government.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband is said to have been "appalled" by the incident.

You'd think "appalled" might be a reaction more appropriate to revelations of systematic institutionalised child abuse and the attendant cover-up rather than this silly storm-in-a-teacup non-story.

The BBC's religious affair's correspondent, in his commentary in the article side-bar, seems delighted to be able to return to business-as-usual, where the Catholic Church supposedly has some kind of moral authority to be defended:

It's clear that what the Foreign Office has called "this foolish document" did not reflect government policy. Its tone is clearly frivolous, and it came from junior officials.

But it has, nevertheless, the potential to cause considerable damage. Whether fairly or not, it will leave some Catholics with the impression of a culture within official circles in which their Church's teaching is not taken seriously.

Well, good.

Some will suspect prejudice against faith groups. Perhaps most damaging of all, it could leave an impression that the Pope might be regarded as a figure of fun less than five months before his visit to Britain.

Even better.

Apart from the pressure on the papal visit from public feeling about sex abuse, and the threat of demonstrations against the Pope, the government needs the Vatican's help in a global diplomatic effort to curb climate change and fight poverty.

The Vatican's major contribution to fighting poverty, to date, involves the continued campaign against the use of condoms. They're not a force we need to be aligned with. The junior officials at the Foreign Office can see this, even if the government can't.

Comments

[DaninVan]

Unfortunately the Government Ministry for the Proliferation of Political Correctness has it's hands full covering up Religion of Peace 'indelicacies'...