By John-Henry Westen
BELFAST, September 22, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Recently Amnesty International’s branch in Northern Ireland came under fire from Catholic activists and a politician from the traditional Protestant party for attacking the Catholic Church during a Gay Pride parade in Belfast this summer (see: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08091103.html). Dr. Esmond Birnie, an Ulster Unionist Party politician, wrote Amnesty’s local director Patrick Corrigan to express concern about a man mockingly dressed up as a Catholic Cardinal alongside an Amnesty International sign promoting homosexual sex, which read “Love is a Human Right.”
Corrigan admitted that the mock-Cardinal outfit was directed at Riga Cardinal Janis Pujats. He also admitted that Amnesty had invited notorious anti-Catholic Peter Tatchell to deliver the Amnesty International Pride Lecture.
Responding to criticism from Dr. Birnie and local Catholic activist Gregory Carlin, Corrigan rebuffed criticism, defending both the caricature of the Cardinal and the inviting of Tatchell. Dr. Birnie, however, is remaining firm in his stance and is calling on Amnesty International to distance itself from the anti-Catholicism being expressed by its local branch in Northern Ireland.
Tatchell’s raving anti-Catholicism was on display in December in an interview with the homosexual news service Pink News. “The sooner someone outs Pope Benedict, the better. His homophobic policies remind me of the Inquisition, and the Hitler Youth, of which he was a member,” said Tatchell in the interview.
Speaking of Pope Benedict’s views on homosexuality, Tatchell said, “These are the rantings of a semi-deranged Christian fundamentalist and a theocrat, whose ego is so enormous that he believes he has a hot-line to God. If any ordinary person in the street did it, they’d probably put them in a mental asylum. It is amazing the indulgences that are allowed for the so-called ‘men of God.’ Pope Benedict he is the ideological inheritor of the Nazi homophobia. He’d like to eradicate homosexuality, but since he can’t put LGBT people in physical concentration camps, is doing his best to put them in psychological concentration camps.”
To express concern contact the Amnesty International Secretariat:
International Secretariat (IS)
Amnesty International,
Peter Benenson House,
1 Easton Street, London WC1X 0DW,
United Kingdom
email: [email protected]
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Amnesty International Supports Anti-Catholic Bigotry During Gay Pride Belfast
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08091103.html