Richard Dawkins calls for Pope to be put on trial
Critics including Christopher Hitchens are exploring legal options for
Pope Benedict XVI to face trial in UK
* Helen Pidd <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/helenpidd>
* guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/> , Sunday 11 April 2010
20.33 BST
* Article history
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/critics-trial-pope-benedict\
-xvi#history-link-box>
[Pope Benedict XVI blesses during Sunday Angelus prayer at his
residence of Castelgandolfo]
Pope Benedict XVI during Sunday Angelus prayer at his residence of
Castelgandolfo, south of Rome, April 11, 2010. Photograph: Osservatore
Romano/REUTERS
Prominent atheists Richard Dawkins
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/dawkins> and Christopher Hitchens
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/christopher-hitchens> are paying
lawyers to investigate the possibility of prosecuting the pope for
crimes against humanity, their solicitor confirmed today.
The pair argue that Pope Benedict XVI
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/pope-benedict-xvi> should be arrested
when he visits Britain in September and put on trial for his alleged
cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church. Last week a letter
emerged from 1985 in which the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger urged that
a paedophilic priest in America not be defrocked for the "good of the
universal church".
The Vatican has already suggested the pope is immune from prosecution
because he is a head of state. But Dawkins and Hitchens believe that
because he is not the head of a state with full United Nations
membership, he does not hold immunity and could be arrested when he
steps on to British soil.
This is the advice they have been given by their lawyers solicitor
Mark Stephens and human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson QC.
"I'm convinced we can get over the threshold of immunity," said
Stephens. "The Vatican is not recognised as a state in international
law. People assume that it has existed for time immemorial but it was a
construct of Mussolini, and when the Vatican first applied to become a
member of the UN, the US said no. So as a sop they were given the status
of permanent observers rather than full members."
But the Holy See insists it is a state like any other. Earlier this
month, Giuseppe Dalla Torre, Vatican tribunal chief, said: "The pope is
certainly a head of state and he has the same legal status as all heads
of state."
Stephens said there are three lines of approach to put the pope in the
dock. "One is that we apply for a warrant to the international criminal
court. Alternatively, criminal proceedings could be brought here, either
a public prosecution brought by the Crown Prosecution Service or a
private prosecution. That would require at least one victim to come
forward who is either from this jurisdiction or was abused here. The
third option is for individuals to lodge civil claims," said Stephens.
He said he had recently been approached by seven wealthy individuals who
donated money to the Catholic church and were dismayed their money had
not only been used to fund abuse but also buy the silence of victims.
These people could potentially sue the pope, Stephens suggested.
Writing in the Washington Post on Friday, Dawkins described Ratzinger as
a "leering old villain in a frock
whose first instinct when his
priests are caught with their pants down is to cover up the scandal and
damn the young victims to silence."
Without admitting that he had consulted lawyers he added: "This former
head of the Inquisition should be arrested the moment he dares to set
foot outside his tinpot fiefdom of the Vatican, and he should be tried
in an appropriate civil not ecclesiastical court. That's
what should happen. Sadly, we all know our faith-befuddled governments
will be too craven to do it."
Pope Benedict will be in Britain from 16-19 September where he will
beatify the theologian Cardinal John Henry Newman.
