Holy See (the identity assumed by the Vatican when it is engaged in diplomatic activities) routinely ignored the UN’s edict that one sovereign state should not interfere with the internal affairs of another.
One of the OSCE’s three main purposes is the protection of human rights, and Mr Pollock reminded the conference that the Vatican routinely shielded, and abetted the escape from justice of, child abuse criminals.
European Humanists put Holy See on the spot at human rights conference
The President of the European Humanist Federation (to which the NSS is affiliated) has launched a blistering attack on the “undiplomatic behaviour” of the Holy See at a conference of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
David Pollock told the OSCE — the world’s largest security organisation with 55 participating states and over a hundred NGOs — that the Holy See (the identity assumed by the Vatican when it is engaged in diplomatic activities) routinely ignored the UN’s edict that one sovereign state should not interfere with the internal affairs of another.
One of the OSCE’s three main purposes is the protection of human rights, and Mr Pollock reminded the conference that the Vatican routinely shielded, and abetted the escape from justice of, child abuse criminals. Read the full speech and accompanying paper.
Also present at the conference was Vera Pegna who spoke for the Italian Union of Atheists, Agnostics and Rationalists. She, too, was highly critical of the Vatican’s inordinate influence on Italian politics and its threats to the secular constitution of the country. She spoke of the pope’s attacks on “aggressive secularism” and said: “The Pope’s idea of ‘aggression’ is daring to argue for a different opinion from his.”
The representative of the Holy See, Mgr Anthony Frontiero, exercised his right of reply, in which he attacked those who were critical of the Holy See saying that it had a long history of diplomatic relations with other states and therefore no-one had the right to question its participation in the conference. He said that the Vatican was one of the most “ardent defenders” of human rights around the globe.
Msgr Frontiera then deflected EHF’s criticism by the usual tactic of making the Catholic Church into the victim, stating that any questioning of the Holy See’s activities was somehow an attack on the individual’s right to manifest their religion. He said it was secularists’ purpose to “expunge religion from society and cleanse the culture of any religious sentiment or belief whatsoever.”
Naturally, he made no reference to clerical child abuse or the interference by the Holy See in the legislative processes of other sovereign states.
David Pollock said: “We gave out over 50 copies of Geoffrey Robertson’s book, The Case of the Pope, to selected diplomats and NGOs and our side meeting on the Lautsi case (the Italian crucifix-in-Italian-schools case) was well attended.”
Read more at www.secularism.org.uk
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