Vatican City, Apr 14, 2010 / 00:20 am
Dismissing an atheist campaign to arrest Pope Benedict XVI as “a stunt to get public attention,” Vatican spokesman Fr. Frederico Lombardi has said the Pope’s September visit to Britain will go forward. One campaign leader has in the past suggested that a Catholic upbringing is worse than many forms of child abuse.
The campaign, led by atheists Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, claims the Pope has committed crimes against humanity. UK human rights lawyers are preparing a brief against Benedict, claiming he has covered up sex abuse in the Catholic Church, ANSA reports.
Atheist polemicist Christopher Hitchens has argued that the Vatican is not a legal state and Pope Benedict cannot claim diplomatic immunity.
For his part, Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and leading atheist, said he hoped to raise public consciousness “to the point where the British government will find it very awkward indeed to go ahead with the Pope's visit.”