www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/reli...gainst-humanity.html

Richard Dawkins has always been a hero of mine, but if this is true, he has lost my respect.

How can you compare the Pope advising not to defrock a priest for committing a crime which only recieved 3 months with somebody like Pinochet who had thousands of civilians tortured and executed?

In 'The God Delusion' Dawkins devotes nearly an entire chapter to debunking paedohysteria and in particular it's use as a whip against the Catholic church. I thought that was incredibly fair and brave of him. (His point was that filling the minds of children with tales of eternal hell can be a far greater form of child abuse than inapropriate sexual fumbles).

Seems he's now committing the same paedohysteria mistake of commentators on the Polanksi affair. This incident took place in the 1970's. Whilst I'm not trying to make light of the crime that the priest committed against those young boys, the fact that he only recieved 3 months in prison demonstrates that you can't project our unforgiving attitudes back into a different, sexually anarchic era.

Never been a fan of Dawkins mainly because he seems completely devoid of a sense of humour.

I think the attacks upon the Pope are hysteria.

There is much that is good and bad about most churches but in an historical sense we may as well blame him for the Inquisition which was hardly a shining example of the Catholic church in action.

20 or 30 years ago everyuone treated abuse in different ways including authorities and those who are speaking out today.

meanwhile- tens of thousands of children are physically and mentally abused (just in the UK alone) today and nothing is done about it yet the Catholic church is one of the few who do help out.

How many calling for his head are 'lapsed' Catholics ?

Oooh, if I was Satan - which I'm not - instead of pretending to be him when singing a song, I'd think my Ultimate Weapon was working like an absolute dream.