The British Humanist Association (BHA) has today written to the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to protest against any invitation to the Pope to make a state visit to the UK.
The letter set out some examples which make the honour of a state visit by the Pope inappropriate. These included the Pope’s recent comments that condom use aggravates the problem of HIV/AIDS. Such comments are highly irresponsible and directly undermine the struggle in Africa and elsewhere to reduce the death toll from AIDS and bring the epidemic under control.
The prohibition on contraception, which condemns millions of people in the developing world to a life of desperate poverty and has a significant impact on maternal and children’s health, and also affects children’s access to education was discussed in the letter.
The letter also detailed the Vatican’s opposition to decriminalising homosexuality and to protecting gay people from discrimination and the Pope’s recent comments that the threat from homosexuality was greater than that from destruction of the rainforests. By inviting the Pope to make a state visit it appears that the British Government endorses such attitudes or at least asserts their legitimacy.
It was made clear in the letter that the BHA does not object to a visit by the Pope to the UK, but to his visit being a state visit, and to his being invited as a head of state with all that implies, clarifying that the BHA fully recognises and respects the rights of Catholics to practice their beliefs and would not condemn individuals who follow their Church’s doctrine. The BHA’s concerns regard the Pope and the Vatican whose behaviour and views are not necessarily supported by or representative of the majority of Catholics in the UK.
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The British Humanist Association represents and supports the non-religious. It is the largest organisation in the UK campaigning for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief, and for a secular state.