The BBC and God’s Ambassador

WHAT on earth is the BBC playing at?

Carrying on as if all of Britain is currently waiting in eager anticipation for Pope Ratzinger to hit our shores, it ploughs on with programmes which steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the fact that a great many Brits are dead set against this visit, are appalled by revelations of global clerical child abuse, and deeply resent that fact that millions in taxpayers’ dosh is to be squandered on this ghastly old drag queen.

This morning at 11am, for example, Radio 4 will broadcast “God’s Ambassador“:

Francis Campbell, our man in Rome

This is how it trails the programme, which focuses on the role of Francis Campbell:

He was the first Catholic to be appointed to the role of Ambassador to the Holy See since the Reformation and he’s been our man in the Vatican since 2005. Not bad for a man born into farming stock in a tiny Northern Irish village on the border with Ireland.

It goes on:

The Holy See might be one of the smallest British Embassies, but Francis is quick to point out the international scope of his team. In this two part series, Ruth Mcdonald follows the work of the tiny team in Rome, as they prepare for the Pope’s visit to the UK – the first STATE visit by the head of the Catholic Church to this country.

Francis is a charming, friendly and honest man, whose own memories of the Pope’s visit to Ireland in 1979 means he knows just what a papal visit can mean to the Catholic minority in the UK. He himself started training for the priesthood – although his interest in politics won out, and he dropped out of seminary. But a strong faith is behind his enthusiasm and drive for this papal visit – enthusiasm that doesn’t flag even though the media focus on the visit has so far been on cost and clerical abuse.
Ruth travels between London, Rome and Birmingham, following Francis and the team in Whitehall and the Vatican.

Because the BBC is so good at so much of what it does, this sort of toadying, uncritical coverage, which will no doubt neatly sidestep the fact that the Holy See is a BOGUS entity, puts a bloody great dent in its reputation for objective reporting, and makes programmes like these all the more infuriating.

This is what Andrew Copson, of the BHA said in April regarding the Holy See:

As a citizen of Europe and the leader of a religion with many UK adherents, the Pope is, of course free to visit the UK. But the Holy See is a fake state, which uses its international influence for religious ends, and to allow the Pope to visit us as a head of state is ludicrous.

And last month, Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, anticipated that this “State” visit would be used by the Catholic Church as an opportunity to further demand its “rights” to practise discrimination.

No church has such ‘rights’ in Britain, nor should it have, and the Pope should respect that. If he comes to our country and rails against the equality laws he so despises, it will be seen by many as an impertinence and an insult to the state of which he is supposed to be an honoured guest.

The only reason this massive cost is being bankrolled by the taxpayer is that this is, nominally at least, a state visit by a head of state. The protocol of such visits is for the visitor not to engage in the politics of the host country.

So, not only do we have to pay for what is largely a religious visit, but the thanks we are likely to get for our largesse is critical interference in our domestic affairs – and there will not even be an opportunity for a Right of Reply. As usual for the Vatican it is ‘heads they win tails we lose’.

We appeal to the Pope to stick to religion while he is here and keep his unpleasant political opinions, which even many Catholics find hard to stomach, to himself.