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LONDON (April 26) -- Britain's government has been forced to apologize to the Vatican after the leak of a "foolish" internal memo that suggested the pope could bless a gay marriage or open an abortion ward during an upcoming visit to the U.K.
The highly sarcastic document was written by a junior official at the Foreign Office -- the U.K.'s equivalent of the State Department -- during a brainstorming session to develop an itinerary for Pope Benedict XVI's September trip, the first by a pontiff to Britain since 1982. The memo was sent to the prime minister's office and three other government departments, and came with a warning that its contents "should not be shared externally" as they included "even the most far-fetched of ideas."
Those unholy proposals, published by the Sunday Telegraph, included suggestions that the pontiff use the trip to launch a range of "Benedict" condoms, "announce sacking of dodgy bishops," and take part in a public gymnastics display where he could "do forward rolls with children to promote healthy living." It also noted the pope could apologize for the Spanish Armada of 1588 or sing a charity song with Queen Elizabeth II.
After the Telegraph went public with the revelations, the Foreign Office issued a speedy apology, saying, "This is clearly a foolish document. Many of the ideas in the document are clearly ill-judged, naive and disrespectful." Steven Mulvain, the 23-year-old Oxford graduate who penned the document -- and who once declared in a podcast that his hobbies included "drinking a lot" -- went unpunished. However, a more senior official who allowed the document to be sent out uncensored has since been "transferred to other duties," the government said.
Several religious leaders issued strong condemnations of the document, saying it revealed the government's anti-Christian bias. "I think that Christianity has been so much a part of the furniture of our society that it tends to be neglected and taken for granted," Peter Forster, the Anglican bishop of Chester, told BBC radio. "There's a 'familiarity breeding contempt' in some circles of society about our Christian heritage which leads to the distasteful events we had yesterday with that memo."
"This is appalling. You don't invite someone to your country and then disrespect them in this way," the Right Reverend Malcolm McMahon, the Roman Catholic bishop of Nottingham, told the Telegraph. "It's outlandish and outrageous to assume that any of the ideas are in any way suitable for the pope."
The Vatican, however, appeared less concerned. "For us the case is closed," spokesman Federico Lombardi told Italy's ANSA news agency, adding that the memo would have "absolutely" no impact on the upcoming trip. Vatican officials were presumably relieved that for the first times in months, they weren't the ones under pressure to say sorry.
Britain Apologizes to Pope Over Gay Marriage Memo
Apr 26, 2010 – 9:48 AM
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