The Times states:
The document also suggested that the National Anthem be changed, from God Save the Queen to God Save the World.
As the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was forced into a rapid damage-limitation exercise with an official apology for an "unacceptable" document, sources told The Times that the entire visit could now be in jeopardy.
The document was drawn up by the Foreign Office as part of a briefing pack and sent to officials across Whitehall.
It also suggested that Benedict XVI could demonstrate a hard line on child abuse by "sacking dodgy bishops" and launching a helpline for abused children.
The Government’s papal visit team document also recommended that he sing a song with the Queen for charity and apologise for the Spanish Armada.
The Times continued:
A Foreign Office spokesman said that David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, was aware of the document and "appalled" by it.
The ideas in the paper, entitled The Ideal Visit We Would Like to See, were drawn up by what the Foreign Office described as "a group of three or four junior staff in a team working on the papal visit".
It was attached as one of three "background documents" to an e-mail headed Policy Planning Ahead of the Pope’s Visit, dated March 5, which invited officials to attend a meeting.
The author of the e-mail, said to be an Oxbridge-educated junior civil servant in his twenties, admitted that some of the ideas were "far-fetched". Recipients included Nicola Ware, a senior Foreign Office official, as well as Downing Street, the Department for International Development and the Northern Ireland Office.
One suggested that Pope Benedict should be persuaded to spend a night in a council flat in Bradford and "do forward rolls with children to promote healthy living".
The memo also featured a list of "positive" people who could be associated with the trip, including Tony Blair and Susan Boyle, the Britain’s Got Talent singing star. Wayne Rooney, the footballer, and Richard Dawkins, the atheist, are considered "negative".
You see, Dawkins has already called for the immediate arrest and imprisonment of the Pope.
Is this some aberrant civil servant or is this the true reflection of the UK Government? I believe that it is the latter. After all it is the same Government which starved to death half the Irish population and still occupies one third of Ireland.
Would the Pope ever get an apology from the Queen, one whose own family travails often place papal foibles to shame, doubtful. My suggestion, Pope, stay out of the UK, besides the food is not that good anyway.
It gets even better in the Guardian. It states:
An internal Foreign Office memo about this September's papal visit to Britain which started as a Friday afternoon joke, today has resulted in a formal government apology to the Vatican.
The memorandum, apparently written following a brainstorming session by a group of junior civil servants planning events for the four-day visit by Pope Benedict XVI, suggested among other ideas that he might like to start a helpline for abused children, sack "dodgy" bishops, open an abortion ward, launch his own brand of condoms, preside at a civil partnership, perform forward rolls with children, apologise for the Spanish armada and sing a song with the Queen.
It was circulated across Whitehall, including to Downing Street with a covering note suggesting it should not be shown externally and adding, unnecessarily perhaps, that its ideas were far-fetched.
The joke fell very flat indeed after the memo was leaked to the Sunday Telegraph, with David Miliband, the foreign secretary, said to be appalled, a grovelling apology from his department and a formal expression of regret offered to the Vatican by the British ambassador Francis Campbell.
The Guardian continues:
The civil servant responsible, said to be in his 20s, appears to have written the document on a Friday in early March, some weeks before the latest waves of child abuse accusations engulfed the Catholic church, which has indeed resulted in the departure of several bishops, including two this weekend, in Ireland and Belgium....The ludicrous nature of the suggestions did not prevent some within the Catholic church reacting to what they claimed was a disrespectful slur, demanding apologies that many senior Vatican officials have in recent weeks declined to offer children abused in church care.
Ludicrous is a bit light handed a characterization indeed. Perhaps one should demand the absolution for the Government. That was the way it worked in the past, that is before Henry VIII used the chopping block so effectively.
But wait, it is not over yet. Just look at the comments to the article in the Independent. The readers in the UK make such suggestions as:
"The Pope Must Die"...Why are we apologising for one of the best, most hilarious things the government has produced. The pope is a supporter of paedophiles, advocates encouragement of the spread of HIV in Africa to the point of genocide, discriminates against gay people, thinks women do not have the right to choose whether they have a baby or not, and thinks women do not even deserve to have the same rights as men. This man and his entire catholic organisation have stolen mass wealth from the world for centuries. This is NOT a good man. He is disgusting and despicable and should be put on a par with people like Pinochet, Slobberdan Milosevic, and the like.
Perhaps God sent the volcano over the Brits as a warning! Perhaps also the Pope should truly reconsider this visit. Clearly the Brits do not want him and the Government is messing this up even further. That volcano may just erupt again, and keep all travel to a standstill.
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