Christopher Hitchens' epic opening statement (Must see)

Archbishop Archbishop, thank you and you are admirable in your timing. I didn't have to do this at all to tell him that he was coming to the end of his time. Our next speaker is Christopher Hitchens, who is arguing against the motion. Christopher Hitchens is British. of origin, but he has spent most of his working life in the United States. He is a writer, journalist and commentator particularly known for his scathing views and very original thinking of him. He works at Vanity Fair magazine where he memorably wrote a little less than complementary profile I would have to say Christopher of the late Mother Teresa so Christopher Hitchens let us hear what you have to say your time begins now please proceed to the podium your grace ladies and gentlemen brothers and sisters um and zainab who did something something I'd hardly ever experienced before complimented my shirt before we came tonight so I was able to come back pointing to hers that you're feasting on now and saying: I once saw Norman Sinjin Stevens, now Lord Stephen. wearing a shirt like that on TV and his interviewer asked him, oh my gosh, what a beautiful shirt, where did you get it? and Siva said: do you really like it?

She said: I call him a sort of crushed cardinal, I might add in the spirit of brotherhood which I am sure will inform this entire evening that the very existence of Lord Sivas of Foley is testament to the breadth of the church. Now I regret having to start by disagreeing with His Excellency. If you are going to go. To be a serious adult and appear to defend the Catholic Church in public in front of an educated and literate public, you simply have to start by presenting a large number of heartfelt apologies and requests for contrition and forgiveness, now you can ask for them.

We have every right to ask, brothers and sisters, who am I to say that? Well, in the Millennium Jubilee year of 2000, Vatican spokesman Bishop Purely Marini said, explaining the entire apology sermon delivered by His Holiness the Pope that was supposed to cover the entire history of the church in his year. of Jubilee that our quote Bishop Marini said directly given the number of sins that we have committed in the course of the 20th century, the reference to them

must

necessarily be quite summery when I believe that Bishop Marini was almost right. To be summarized as well, but I think he said the least, His Holiness on that occasion, it was March 12, 2000, if you want to look it up, he asked for forgiveness, among other things, for the Crusades, the Inquisition, the persecution of the Jewish people.

The injustice towards women which is half of the human race right there and the forced conversion of indigenous peoples especially in South America and which followed a whole series of previous apologies or apologies I would say of a kind made by the late Pope Juan Pablo, who doesn't worry me. nothing to say he was a very impressive and serious human being um he was followed by no less than 94 94 count them uh public acknowledgments on his part of atrocious crime and error and cruelty and stupidity and offenses to free intelligence ranging from I will be summarized as Bishop Mourini apologized for the African slave trade in 1995.

Uh, uh, the admission that Galileo was right about the relationship between the Sun and the Earth and other orbs that appeared in 1992, one might add that no, I won't say it's too much easy to say better. later than ever here I said it to violence and torture legalized torture torture was legalized and institutionalized by the Roman pontiff during the counter-reformation that arrived in 1995. um and by the silence during Hitler's final solution or shower, as well as in 1999 just arrived under the wire of the Millennium Jubilee an apology for the burning alive in the main square of Prague of the great Czech Protestant Janhurst um since that great Feast of Forgiveness that began in uh well culminated, I could say in 2000 Feast of Forgiveness Feast of ask for it on The papacy also asked for forgiveness for the sack of Constantinople and the massacre of Byzantine Christianity in April 1204 as part of the Fourth Crusade.

The anathema against all Eastern Orthodox Christians as unbelievers, heretics and people living outside the health of the Church was not lifted until 1964. I draw your attention to the fact that he also expressed regret for the murder and forced conversion of Orthodox Christians. Serbs in the Balkans during the Second World War and it does not end there, there are minor but equally significant vows of very bad conscience. These have included repentance for the rape and torture of orphans and other children in church-run schools in almost every country on Earth, from Ireland to Australia, and I am pleased to see that the situation is now being reconsidered and that, in fact, it is possible that he has been delivered to the infernal.

I will choose the word carefully. doctrine of limbo. cruel and stupid. Catholic parents have been taught that this is where their unbaptized children suffered a form of torture that is sometimes worse than physical. Now it seems that this piece of Augustinian sadism is also being reconsidered, but remember that this is from a church that in general can occur, we weigh a more targeted mission for For example, I give you some suggestions while we are at it. I would like them to recover the Concord made with Adolf Hitler, the first treaty he signed giving the church the monopoly of education in Germany in exchange for the dissolution of the Catholic Church. centrist party to give the Nazi party a clear run.

I would apologize for the latter that I myself unpacked with Mussolini and the first treatise I assigned to that fascist dictator. I also think I would like to reconsider the fact that Father Tizo, head of the Nazi puppet state in Slovakia was a priest in Hurley who ordered that the Croatian fascist puppet state the anti-pavilish UStachian state was also operating under full protection and clerical disguise as was the regime of General Franco and the dictator Antonio Salazar and I also really want to apologize for this. I don't think the German church should have asked for Hitler's birthday to be celebrated from the pulpit every year until his death.

These are very serious matters and should not be mocked. references to the occasional work of Catholic Charities but I draw your attention not only to the apologies ladies and gentlemen but also to the evasive and euphemistic way that Joseph Ratzinger, the current Pope considered by some Catholics to be the Vicar of Christ on Earth, says of Indians of the Indians who were massacred in the course of conversion in Brazil after being apologized to, he said, however we

must

remember that before we came to convert them they were silently waiting for the arrival of the church, I don't think.

That is a very genuine apology to you in his comment, one of the few he has made about the institutionalization of rape, torture and abuse of children in Catholic institutions. He said that it is a very serious crisis that involves us. He said the following on the need to apply the most loving pastoral care to these victims. Well, I'm sorry you've already had that, and to say that this is the responsibility placed on you by the horrible admission you've already had to make is not accepting responsibility. In any adult sense when I say that child abuse was institutional, how dare I say it? how can i test it?

How could I prove such a thing? I will ask His Excellency where is Cardinal Bernard Law now where is he while the Cardinal Archbishop of Boston, whose resignation was finally indignantly demanded by 50 members of the church and by all the laity of Massachusetts, who also degraded his prosecution for promotion, protection, cover-up, apology and defense of people whose crimes against children are too repugnant to specify and are now not in the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, as you may know is the personally appointed Supreme Vicar of the Church of St. Mary Majori in Rome by the Pope for that, as well as for many other important cynics, and in 2005 this man was a fugitive from Justice and from and complicity in the most foul crime that a human being can imagine, he was one of those who voted in conclave to decide who will be the next spokesperson for Christ on Earth I don't know I think I think I would like to hear a little more.

Too bad about this. I think I'd like to see a little more confrontation with the reality of the business. Now this is a serious question, as I've said, and Widow can very often rightly do so. In my opinion, she attacks the climate of moral relativism and, for what it's worth, she may well be the servant of hedonistic postmodernist culture. Very often I am glad that she points out these things, but the rape and torture of children is not something to be relativized; it is not something to be excused as a few bad priests; It is certainly not to be excused by the appallingly false claim made by some Catholic conservatives that this would not have happened if homosexuals had not been allowed into the church, I am sorry to say.

Being molested in church is also an old story um and it's worse, it's much worse than pornography and it's much worse than bad language on television and it's the crime that cries out for punishment, it's what if we were accused of On this side of the house we would die rather than admit it and if we were guilty of it we would kill ourselves and it is the only thing the church has decided to excuse itself for under this papacy. The same euphemism comes in the term some Christians that is used in all the apologies for the Crusades, the inquisitions, the anti-Semitic programs and everything else they said that some Christians fell into error, some Christians allowed themselves to be deceived in this way and acted against the gospel, well, antisemitism was preached as official doctrine of the Church until 1964.

Do you think it might have something to do with public opinion in Austria, Bavaria, Poland and Lithuania that the Jewish people were accused collectively as a people of deicide or of the crime of murder? of God in the figure of Jesus of Nazareth and that that anathema was not lifted from them until the year 64. long after the perpetrators of the Holocaust were tried in secular courts and were justly punished for their actions, how can this church say who has any moral superiority has difficulty achieving what ordinary people consider common moral and ethical sense and still cannot adequately apologize and I will tell you why because, and I will quote again from the encyclicals, it is said of the Crusades of complicity with the Holocaust of The political and diplomatic alliance with fascism, all these things are said well, violence was committed, but I emphasize it, I underline it, I will quote it directly in the service of the truth, like this.

How is an apology possible? How can any firm understanding, commitment or purpose of amendment be allowed when the original sin, so to speak, Radix malorum? The Fonz in Oregon, the problem in the first place is the belief on the part of this church that it has a truth that we do not have and has a God-given right, a guarantee, a Mandate from Heaven to tell other people what not to do. only in his public life but also in his private life and until that has changed until that fantastic and the sinister and unfounded claim is changed these crimes will continue to be repeated being partially denied partially admitted when it is too late to do anything else and covered up behind of all these crimes and miseries is the denial of what we are on this side of the house He stated that the only small candle of hope that our species possesses is our poor species of bifurcated primate mammals, of which you have two such splendid examples in this side of the house and not bad on the other tonight. intelligence, the method of free inquiry, philosophy and science, and the refusal to admit that anyone can tell you not to do it, is the only thing I could say, I think, if it is not sacrosanct or sacred, let's say that It is essential, and the church has always opposed and still opposes this now, in the little time I have left, I will just propose a few more apologies that we might expect to hear in the immediate future because the time will come when the church will issue apologies and explanations. and half-hearted appeals for forgiveness for things he is still doing the rein

statement

as bishop of Roger Williamson, a member of Marcel Lefevre's hysterical and fanatical separatist sect, the so-called Society of Saint Pius X, Roger Williamson was found hiding in a reactionary establishment quasi-fascist in Argentina.

I have long believed that I will say it briefly: the Holocaust did not happen but the Jews did kill Christ, in other words, genocide, no, dear side, yes, he was rightly excommunicated some years ago along with several other members of his cluster. rap exchange organization, but Joseph Ratzik has invited him back into fellowship because for him, having this man, this liar, this fraud. This racist in the church is more important because he is the Unity of the Church than the things he said, did and continues to defend. This is not a scandal, I think there will be an apology for what happened in Rwanda, the most Catholic country in Africa, one of the most Catholic countries in the world, where priests, nuns and bishops are being tried for making incisions from their pulpits and in the walls.

Thechurch radio stations and newspapers, the massacre of his brothers and sisters and the papacy remained silent on this heinous occasion and everyone in Rwanda knows it and there has yet to be a properly written apology for that misfortune of staying in Africa. I think one day there will be an apology. We must admit with shame that it could have been a mistake to say that AIDS is bad as a disease, very bad, but not as bad as condoms are. bad or not so immoral in the same way thank you I say it I say it in the presence of your grace and I say it to your face the preachings of your church are responsible for the death and suffering and misery of millions of your African brothers and sisters and you should apologize for it you should show some shame fourth for condemning my friend Stephen Fry for his character for saying you can't be a member of our church you were born in sin there is a disgusting piece of Casio Street that is sometimes offered on this point, yes, we hate sin.

We only love the sinner. I'm sorry to say that Stephen is not like other girls, it's his nature. he's not being condemned for what he does he's being condemned for what he is you're a child made in the image of God oh no you're not you're a and you can't join your church and you can't go to heaven this is it shameful, it is inhuman, it is obscene and it comes from a group of hysterical sinister virgins who have already betrayed their position in the children of their own church out of shame and finally under this Pope as if it were not bad enough. to try to restore the Latin Master, please the crazy fascist followers of Archbishop Lefevre, uh, but start again offering the remission of sin as a colonel as bishop aratzinger, the pope, I'll call him pope for the good that um he wants to do if you come . to a Catholic youth festival in Sydney, Australia where I just was, you will get some remission from purgatory or hell and maybe temporary, if you come a lot and give a lot you will possibly get a permanent remission from eternal punishment which I don't know more about What is new and I know, this is the blatantly open selling of indulgences, is the same temptation that was offered to those who undertook that Fourth Crusade for which they have just apologized and killed all the Jews of Europe in their path.

The satbism of Christianity when they came to Constantinople and then dominated the Arabs and Muslims, they were offered Paradise if they died committing these terrible crimes against humanity, but if you understand what I mean, then the encouragement is a crime, the impetus to the crime. the belief in certainty the belief that a divine command gives you the right to do whatever you want is the sin that must be that must be canceled there must be an annealing that must somehow be uh sorry for now I don't want it I don't want it It's the perfect moment.

I do not wish, I do not wish any harm on any other primate or mammal of mine, even if this primate or mammal claims to be of a privileged age in possession of a secret that is denied to me. I can forgive. even that, because I live in a country where their reign is not executed, their court order is not enforced and they cannot burn and silence me and, feeling, anyone who can tell my wife that she can't use contraceptives or anyone who can really tell her to Stephen who is a beast, so I'm not, I don't expect the death of Joseph Ratsinger at all, neither do I nor any other Pope, for that matter, except for one small reason that I must confess and share with you when I die, there is a quite long interval until the conclave can meet, perhaps the cardinal law is still in force so elect another pope, sometimes this lasts for months until they get the white smoke and during all that time, all that interval is a delightful interlude lucid there is no one on Earth who claims to be infallible it is not so nice all I think all I want to propose to finish is if the human species is going to reach the maximum height that its dignity and intelligence demands, we must all pass to a state of affairs where that condition is permanent and I think we should move on, okay, thanks for having me.