Britain’s Foreign Office apologized on Saturday for a memorandum by a civil servant suggesting Pope Benedict should open a hospital abortion ward when he visits Britain this year.
The document, which was leaked to the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, also included proposals that the pope should bless a gay marriage and launch papal-branded condoms when he comes to Britain in September.
The paper said the ideas, ridiculing the teachings of the Catholic Church against abortion and contraception, resulted from a “brainstorming” session. It said Britain’s ambassador to the Vatican had expressed the government’s regret to senior officials there.
“This is clearly a foolish document that does not in any way reflect UK government or FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] policy or views,” a spokesman for the FCO said. “Many of the ideas in the document are clearly ill-judged, naive and disrespectful.”
The paper said the proposals, drawn up by a junior civil servant in a memo headlined “The ideal visit would see ...”, were circulated among officials in Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Downing Street office and at the Foreign Office.
The document, which had a cover note admitting that some of the plans were “far-fetched,” also alluded to sex scandals involving pedophile priests in a number of countries by suggesting that Benedict should launch a helpline for abused children.
Other ideas included getting the pontiff to perform forward rolls with children to promote healthy living and even performing a duet with Queen Elizabeth, the Sunday Telegraph said.
A Foreign Office spokesman said no ministers had been shown the document and it was withdrawn when senior officials became aware of it. The individual responsible had been moved to other duties.
“He has been told orally and in writing that this was a serious error of judgment and has accepted this view … The FCO very much regrets this incident and is deeply sorry for the offence which it has caused. We strongly value the close and productive relationship between the UK government and the Holy See and look forward to deepening this further with the visit of Pope Benedict to the UK later this year,” the spokesman said.
Benedict’s trip from Sept. 16 to Sept. 19 will be the first papal visit to Britain since 1982. He is scheduled to meet the queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual head of the Anglican Church.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency and the Pentagon on Monday said that some North Korean troops have been killed during combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region. Those are the first reported casualties since the US and Ukraine announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost three-year war. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said that about 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded during a battle with the Ukrainian army at the weekend. The casualties occurred around three villages in Kursk, where Russia has for four months been trying to quash a
FREEDOM NO MORE: Today, protests in Macau are just a memory after Beijing launched measures over the past few years that chilled free speech A decade ago, the elegant cobblestone streets of Macau’s Tap Seac Square were jam-packed with people clamouring for change and government accountability — the high-water mark for the former Portuguese colony’s political awakening. Now as Macau prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of its handover to China tomorrow, the territory’s democracy movement is all but over and the protests of 2014 no more than a memory. “Macau’s civil society is relatively docile and obedient, that’s the truth,” said Au Kam-san (歐錦新), 67, a schoolteacher who became one of Macau’s longest-serving pro-democracy legislators. “But if that were totally true, we wouldn’t
ROYAL TARGET: After Prince Andrew lost much of his income due to his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, he became vulnerable to foreign agents, an author said British lawmakers failed to act on advice to tighten security laws that could have prevented an alleged Chinese spy from targeting Britain’s Prince Andrew, a former attorney general has said. Dominic Grieve, a former lawmaker who chaired the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) until 2019, said ministers were advised five years ago to introduce laws to criminalize foreign agents, but failed to do so. Similar laws exist in the US and Australia. “We remain without an important weapon in our armory,” Grieve said. “We asked for [this law] in the context of the Russia inquiry report” — which accused the government
RSS