Dawkins, Hitchens want Pope arrested

[Matilda]

"High-profile atheist Richard Dawkins is backing a push to have Pope Benedict arrested over the Catholic Church's child abuse scandal when the pontiff visits Britain later this year.

High-profile barrister and human rights campaigner Geoffrey Robertson has advised Dawkins and author Christopher Hitchens that legal action can be taken against the Pope over his alleged cover-up of sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

In 1985, in his then capacity as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Pope Benedict signed a letter arguing that the good of the universal church should be considered before the defrocking of an American priest who committed sex offences against two boys.

Dawkins and Hitchens are hoping to exploit the same legal principle used to arrest former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet on a Spanish warrant when he visited the UK in 1998."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/12/2869790.htm


I do think that Dawkins is a very arrogant and intolerant man, and Hitchens is a nutter, but I'm a great admirer of
Geoffrey Robertson, and if he's taking on the case, sparks could fly.

I don't know whether you know of Robertson in the U.S. - he's an Australian lawyer who is now a QC in England,
and has a very strong record of defending progressive causes, such as representing left-wing activists free of charge
if he believes in their case. He's a very, very intelligent man and has a very powerful personality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Robertson

I really do think it's high time the Vatican was called to account - the endless tales of the faithful being
abandoned because the standing of the Church is considered more important has to stop. Geoffrey Robertson
is just the man to take on the might of Rome - he's absolutely fearless.

[rug]

1. Every circus inevitably attracts the clowns.

[nxylas]

2. Ugh, why did it have to be them?

I'd love to see Pope Benedict be the subject of a citizen's arrest...performed by one of the actual victims of the child abuse scandal, or an adult relative if they're not yet old enough to perform the arrest themselves. With Ditchkins involved, it just looks like cheap point-scoring.

[Matilda]

3. It's Geoffrey Robertson who will be the key.

Human Rights cases are his specialty, and his intellect is formidable.

He was instrumental in helping to prepare the case against Saddam Hussein and in training the Iraqi judges, but
felt that politics and the desire for revenge prevented Hussein from receiving a fair trial, which could have set
a valuable precedent in conducting trials of other heads of state accused of mass murdering their own people.

He doesn't let his emotions get in the way of his intellectual judgment, and the lack of a fair trial seemed to
anger him as much as the crimes perpetrated by Saddam. I think he would therefore have a different approach to
this case than either Dawkins or Hitchens, both of whom have tunnel vision when it comes to their own points of
view. Robertson's approach would be purely legal.

He has this to say about the case against the Pope:

"... head of state immunity provides no protection for the Pope in the International Criminal Court. The ICC statute definition of a crime against humanity includes rape and sexual slavery and similarly inhumane acts causing harm to mental or physical health, committed against civilians on a widespread or systematic scale, if condoned by a government or a de facto authority.

"If acts of sexual abuse by priests are not isolated or sporadic, but part of a wide practice both known to and unpunished by their de facto authority then they fall within the temporal jurisdiction of the ICC - if that practice continued after July 2002, when the court was established."

Robertson's personality can be flamboyant and he's no slouch when it comes to publicity, but the mind behind the
outward show is as sharp as any you could find, and his knowledge of International Law is impressive.