I am not against religion, and have great affection and admiration for my Christian friends, but I am against prejudice and hypocrisy, and have been sickened by some of the remarks the Pope is reported to have made during his 4-day visit to Britain. One always has to be careful about believing what the newspapers say, but here are some of the comments reported:-1)	The Nazi desire to eradicate God led to the Holocaust.-Where does he get his logic from? If the Nazis wished to eradicate God, why did they slaughter the Jews and other minorities, and not the Catholics and Protestants as well? And while on this subject, why did Pius XII not lift a finger to help the Jews?-2)	Referring to Britain as a multicultural society, he attacked "the more aggressive forms of secularism", and pleaded that this society should not "obscure the Christian foundation that underpins its freedoms."-What freedoms does the Catholic Church underpin in this country? If it had its way, homosexuals would be ostracized, there would be no women priests, contraception would be outlawed, divorcees would be unable to remarry, raped women would be unable to abort their babies...The only freedom the Catholic Church underpins is the freedom to live and worship in the manner prescribed by the Catholic Church.-3)	He rues the damage that "the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life" did in the last century.-Perhaps it has not occurred to him that the presence of God, religion and "virtue" in public life still leads to religious conflicts between different sects, as it has done throughout the centuries, with the Catholics particularly prominent. And perhaps he hasn't made the link between God, religion, public life, fundamentalism and terrorism. As for "virtue"...well, let's look at 4):-4)	In a briefing to journalists, he is reported to have described paedophilia as an illness whose sufferers had lost their free will. -Aren't we supposed to regard sick people as unfortunate victims? What criminal wouldn't jump at such a defence? In his time as Prefect of the Sacred Congregation, these appalling crimes were simply covered up, and according to some reports he was part of the cover-up. Why has it taken so long for him and for the whole institution to repent, to flagellate itself in public, to acknowledge its despicable behaviour? Because until the revelations became unstoppable, they thought they could get away with it. Virtue? In normal public life, paedophiles are reported to the police. In the Catholic Church they were (are?) simply moved to different parishes.-5)	God, religion and virtue in public life? How about Bush ... Blair ... Iraq?-There now, I've got that off my chest. And Joseph Ratzinger has gone back to the independent state of Vatican City, where they make their own rules under the pretext that they and they alone know God's will.