The German President Christian Wulff has invited the Catholic Pope Ratzinger, who will be “visiting” his home country this week, to speak before the parliament.
Now this is problematic for various reasons, one is the obvious issue of the separation of church and state that Germany is supposed to have. But they sneakily get around this problem by classifying Ratzinger as a head of state instead of the head of a religious sect, and poof, he’s allowed to speak in parliament.
The problem I have with this is that one, it’s giving preference to one religious group over all the others, allowing one representative of a religious denomination to address the parliament, while excluding the others. And secondly, what on earth does the German President think that it is, that the leader of a morally bancrupt ring of pedophilia enablers could possibly have to tell the German parliament ? They’re going to hand over Catholic child rapists to the authorities from now on ? Give up their opposition to using condoms in Africa ? Signal their approval of same-sex relationships ? I doubt it. So why is time and money of German parliamentarians wasted on this ?
Well, it’s good to see that some members of parliament feel the same, and they plan to boycott the Pope’s speech in the hundrets. There is a plan to make up the empty seats with former MPs, to make it look less embarrassing for Ratzinger.
Ratzi’s other meetings are also going to be challenging :
The parliamentary boycott is not the only awkward situation Benedict XVI will encounter in Berlin. His meet-and-greets on Thursday include the chancellor, Angela Merkel (a Lutheran), the gay mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, and Christian Wulff, the Roman Catholic president who is on his second marriage after a divorce.
I fully support those parliamentarians who question what on earth Ratzinger could tell them, that would be of any relevance to the running of the federal republic of Germany. Let him speak in one of the countless assets the Catholic Church owns, but not in the parliament of what is supposed to be a secular country.
