The FO simply adores the pope
Ruth Gledhill in The Times tells us that
The civil servant in charge of the Pope’s visit to Britain has been suspended and is to be investigated for misconduct after a memo lampooning the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church was leaked to the press.
All the staff involved in producing the memo are to be sent on “urgent diversity training”
Urgent diversity training? Meaning what? They’ll be trained not to have contempt for contemptible beliefs? How will that be accomplished, exactly? Heavy drugging? Waterboarding?
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “As we have made clear publicly, it was a foolish document that did not in any way reflect FCO views. Although it was intended only for internal use, it was ill-judged, naive and disrespectful of some key tenets of the Catholic faith. It has caused great offence…
Why do key tenets of the Catholic faith have to be respected? They are false after all – and the ones that were mocked in the memo are also harmful – so respect should not be mandated. I do realize it’s not the Foreign Office’s job to make the Catholic church a better institution, but it also shouldn’t be its job to lick Ratzinger’s boots.
The FCO very much regrets this incident and is deeply sorry for the offence which it has caused. We strongly value the close and productive relationship between the UK Government and the Holy See and look forward to deepening this further with the visit of Pope Benedict to the UK later this year.
Does it? Why? Why does the Foreign Office strongly value the close and productive relationship between the UK Government and the Holy See? What is there to value in that? The “Holy See” is a horrible secretive coercive all-male obscurantist organization that shields fugitives from justice (Cardinal Bernard Law) and conceals decade upon decade of child rape until the last rag has been stripped away. The “Holy See” tells Africans not to use condoms during an Aids epidemic, it tells everyone everywhere not to use any birth control at all, it works tirelessly to prevent women from getting abortions and thus to deprive all women of childbearing age of a secure sense that they own their own lives. The “Holy See” stinks – it is repulsive to see the Foreign Office crawling to it in this slavish way.
Bishop Conry: The most disturbing thing is that it creates an awkward feeling, that there is a residue of anti-Catholic bigotry around. It suggests that it is OK to ridicule and vilify the Catholic Church and its beliefs.
At first, I thought the whole thing was silly, and kind of sophomoric. I’m so embarrassed not to have recognized that it was all bigotry and vilification.
Productive relationship? How? What do we get out of this?
Perhaps someone is worried about RC voters in the run up to the wierdest election I’ve ever known. Nah, probably not. Just knee-jerk respect for the guy in the big hat and the old-school pomp.
(There is apparently a FB group trying to get Tim Minchin’s Pope Song to number one in time for the visit.)
The FO got it all wrong.
What they should have done is sequestered anyone with knowledge of the document, had them sign secrecy agreements, and then moved the person responsible to another government department where, after a period of sincere self-reflection, he would be required to head the brainstorming sessions planning the visits of other foreign dignitaries.
I wonder if Ratzinger and his cronies would have been OK with that.
I don’t have any sympathy for His Unsavoryness, the former Grand Inquisitor, or his ‘beliefs’, however the British FO is a diplomatic organization and the letter was not at all diplomatic.
What’s the difference between ‘urgent diversity training’ and ‘diversity training’–rats?electricity?
Yes well, as I said, I do realize it’s not the Foreign Office’s job to make the Catholic church a better institution, but as for diplomacy – what can that mean in relation to the Vatican? Not much, I would think. Even if you accept that Mussolini’s say-so is enough to make the Vatican a “state,” it’s still a pretty notional state.
And it wasn’t a letter, it was a memo – there were no plans to put a stamp on it and send it off to Ratzinger. So…I don’t really think the FO needs to grovel quite that energetically, however embarrassing the memo is.
I think urgent is right now right now right now!
[…] jetzt wurde der Mitarbeiter des Außenamtes nicht mehr nur versetzt, sondern suspendiert und wird eine Untersuchung wegen Fehlverhaltens über sich ergehen lassen müssen, während die […]
I wonder if the staff could somehow refuse the diversity training. Or come out of it disagreeing with something said/taught there. What happens then? Loss of job?
I’ve worked in customer service long enough to know there are limits to how much yelling a customer can do to you. How diverse a range of views do the staff have to respect?
That is exactly the question. I’ve been pondering it myself, thinking it needed its own post. It’s such an imbecilic idea.
Ah, I see. They’re guilty of thought crime. I look foward to news stories about the retraining, particularly the details involving the cage and the rat.
The author of the memo does not need the diversity training. Seems as if he (It was a man I believe) already knows enough about Catholic dogma in order to be able to lampoon it.
This kind of thing should be encouraged so as to open up the debate. The Vatican needs to explain exactly why it is so offended by the suggestions in the memo. And thereby expose themselves as the nasty bigots that they are ;-)
I’m sure that a large proportion of the UK population (myself included) would not in the slightest bit be offended, indeed feel honoured even, to be asked to do some of the things like promote a brand of condoms, bless a gay wedding, etc.
Personally I think I may have reservations with the abortion clinic opening. I generally fall into the pro choice camp but think that the free availability of abortion is the (far) lesser of evils compared to the alternatives. I’m not sure that I would be comfortable in the celebration and promotion of what I think is a necessary evil.
Andy H
Count me in for the opening the abortion clinic, then. I have no objection to abortion whatsoever.
All we need is to find out that the training takes place in Room 101 and the circle is completed…
To be fair there is a history of anti-catholic politics (up to and including execution and war) in the UK.
I’m not sure the RCC should be trying to dine out on it, though.
And there is the rat, of course. Ratzinger, Room 101, the rat…Dear me, it seems almost overdetermined.