The backwardness of Catholic-bashing
By Kevin Rooney, Spiked
Even before the child-abuse scandals it was difficult to find many outside the Catholic Church willing to defend Catholicism. Now it’s impossible. The old-style scoffing at Catholic teaching on sex before marriage and contraception has given way to a thinly veiled hatred towards a church that bans gay couples from adopting children in their care, protects child-abusing priests, and preaches chastity in AIDS-affected parts of Africa.
In this febrile atmosphere, the appetite to pour scorn on Catholicism has never been greater. Public debates about Catholicism sell out like rock concerts as people delight in the derision of big-name speakers like Richard Dawkins, Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens.
Unsurprisingly then, the announcement of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain has not been greeted with the same enthusiasm as previous visits. Aside from loud objections to the cost of the visit, gay rights activist Peter Tatchell’s call for the pope to be arrested on child-abuse charges has enjoyed widespread media coverage and was well received in the Dawkins camp. The pope’s aides will not be comforted by the news from Belgium that investigations into child abuse there have led to the house arrest of several bishops and police-forced entry into the tombs of two dead bishops.
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