posted April 12, 2010 02:33 PM
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:50 PM on 11th April 2010
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1265151/Richard-Da wkins-plans-arrest-Pope-crimes-humanity.html#ixzz0kuccdwou
Two leading atheist campaigners are planning a legal ambush to have the Pope arrested during his state visit to Britain for 'crimes against humanity'.
Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens - who have both written books promoting atheism - 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.
The Pope was embroiled in new controversy this weekend over a letter he signed arguing that the 'good of the universal church' should be considered against the defrocking of an American priest who committed sex offences against two boys.
It was dated 1985, when he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which deals with sex abuse cases.
Benedict will be in Britain between September 16 and 19, visiting London, Glasgow and Coventry, where he will beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, the 19th-century theologian.
Dawkins and Hitchens believe the Pope would be unable to claim diplomatic immunity from arrest because, although his tour is categorised as a state visit, he is not the head of a state recognised by the United Nations.
They have commissioned the barrister Geoffrey Robertson and Mark Stephens, a solicitor, to present a justification for legal action.
The lawyers believe they can ask the Crown Prosecution Service to initiate criminal proceedings against the Pope, launch their own civil action against him or refer his case to the International Criminal Court.
Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, said: 'This is a man 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.'
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"Throughout the universe there's a network of wires stretching to infinity. The horizontal wires are placed in space; the vertical in time. Everywhere where these wires cross eachother, there's an individual. And every individual is a crystal bead. The big light of an Absolute Being enlightens and penetrates each crystal bead. And every crystal bead reflects not only the light of all other crystals in the network, but also every other reflection, from all corners of the Cosmos."
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posted April 12, 2010 02:33 PM
posted April 12, 2010 04:35 PM
oh i get it if you don't believe in god you can't have any convictions!! [2+2=7, right?]