In matters such as this the "atheist cause" (whatever that might be) is absolutely secondary to the pursuit of justice against crimes perpetrated by child-rapists. It does not matter a fig who you are, or in which particular deity you have the utmost faith, if you've been implicated in a criminal conspiracy, you must be brought to task to answer the questions posed.
As with the proverbial ostrich with it head in the sand, countries and institutions such as the UN seem to be turning a blind eye to this horrific issue and the vogue of the day is "do nothing and hope it goes away". But no matter how hard they close their eyes and pray to the invisible dude in the sky, this is not going anywhere, and the likes of Dawkins and Hitchens are among the very few who are willing to stand up and say "wait a minute, this is not right".
Frighteningly I discovered this article dating back to 2002 calling on the UN to revoke the Holy See's Perpetual Observer status. And this came from concerned Catholics! As far as I can determine, this plea died a death and no more was done. In 1999 similar questions were posed here and here, and again nothing was done.
Dawkins wrote in the UK broadsheet The Guardian simply asking the question why should he not ask that Joseph Ratzinger be held to account.
"Why is the church allowed to get away with it, when any government minister who was caught writing such a letter would immediately have to resign in ignominy, and face prosecution himself? A religious leader, such as the pope, should be no different. That is why, along with Christopher Hitchens, I am supporting the current investigation of the pope's criminal complicity by Geoffrey Robertson QC and Mark Stephens."For some reason the fact that Dawkins and Hitchens are atheists should preclude them from asking questions of the Catholic church and its behavior. People seem to be missing the point here by a very wide margin indeed, as some of the comments posted about Dawkins position clearly demonstrate:
(taxesandcuts said) I am an atheist. But this is just daft s**t stirring. If the purpose is to make juvenile attempts to piss off and insult every Catholic then it's not a bad plan. If that is its purpose then it is a nasty divisive idea. So as an atheist "not in my name"
(Rotwatcher said) The Pope may have a case to answer - that's for the courts to decide. But you (and Hitchens) are the wrong people to be involved in this - as poster boys for atheism your particpation shifts the focus onto the religion (which is blameless) and away from the institution (which is arguably to blame).
(Triffid100 said) OK, lets accept the theory about no diplomatic immunity (don't think that will have a cat's hell of chance working but what they hey), for him to be arrested here doesn't he have had to have committed a crime here ? What exactly is the crime you want the police to investigate and charge him with ?And there are many more similar comments. The point is that under the UN Security Council's resolution of crimes against humanity, child molestation and the failure to protect minors from molestation is covered under international law. If Ratzinger was complicit in the cover-up, then his prosecution would fall under the remit of this resolution and if pursued he would go to trial in The Hague.
In sum, this has nothing whatsoever to do with religion, or atheism, or hating god or Catholics, it is about the basic decency of calling for justice when a crime is apparent. This must follow due process and if there is a case to be answered, those accused must face trial. They may be innocent, but if they are guilty as charged, justice must be done.
I applaud the human decency of Dawkins and Hitchens, and ask you the question, why are you not appalled, whether atheist, Catholic, Hundu, Muslim, black, white, Republican, liberal, Democrat, or conservative? - None of this has anything to do with the fact that criminals must be called to account for their actions. Why is not everyone up in arms about this?
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