Pope is no liberal says Atheist Ireland chairman

PEOPLE should beware of accepting the Pope as a liberal – that’s the message from Michael Nugent, Chairman of Atheist Ireland.

Mr Nugent stressed that while Atheist Ireland supports the right to freedom of religion, and the right of the Pope to visit, he believes the State needs to realise that Catholicism is just one religion among many in Ireland and should not be funding the event in the way it is. The Pope’s visit this weekend is expected to cost in excess of €30 million, of which the church has raised €20 million.

“There are so many things outstanding between the Vatican and the State in terms of reparations towards abuse victims and the control the church has over schools and hospitals. These are the issues the State should be raising with the Pope when he comes here, instead of treating it as though it was a benign visit by someone who doesn’t owe the State anything,” Mr Nugent said.

He also stressed that Pope Francis has ‘very good PR’ but feels he hasn’t changed the Catholic Church since becoming Pope.

“A lot of people have this impression, when, in fact, he is very conservative on sexual morality issues. Theologically, he is also regressive. He talks frequently about ‘the devil’ as a person much more frequently than previous Popes.

Mr Nugent also called into question how far the Pope has gone in protecting children from sex abusers and the treatment women as equals.

Mr Nugent also questioned Pope Francis’ views on gay people.

“When the question was asked of him what he thought of gay people being priests, he said ‘who am I to judge?’. His answer was in the context of a gay person who gets a calling to become a priest. So he wasn’t actually saying ‘who am I to judge?’ gay people in its wider sense.”

Mr Nugent concluded: “People should be careful of accepting the PR that the Pope is liberal, and face the reality that he hasn’t actually changed anything. In many ways, from a Catholic perspective, he is more theologically fundamentalist than previous Popes.”