THE POPE AT BAY

THE idea seems preposterous -- that legal action should be taken against the Pope when he visits Britain later this year. Two activist atheists, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkings, are behind the idea which might result in Pope Benedict being arrested as he steps off the plane at Heathrow Airport and before he can even try to kiss the tarmac. The charge would presumably relate to the Catholic Church's failure to report child abuse cases to the police. In other words, it would be something along the lines of the attempt to arrest Chile's General Pinochet when he came on a shopping expedition to London and found himself accused of human rights abuses in Latin America. Preposterous it may seem, but it makes one sit up and take notice when someone as level-headed and commonsensical as the broadcaster and commentator Libby Purvis (who is Catholic by birth) says that she thinks Hitchens and Dawkings may be on to something.

The Pope can do very little to stem the flow of new instances and allegations of child abuse by Roman Catholic priests. What he can do, however, is to stop his advisers in the Vatican and his Archbishops and Bishops around the world from making stupid and incendiary statements on the subject which only serve to make the Church seem more and more isolated from and indifferent to the concerns of its global flock and all others who wish it well.