Brits apologize to pope for `foolish’ memo

LONDON (RNS) The British government was forced to publicly apologize to Pope Benedict XVI over a “foolish” internal memo that suggested, among other things, that the pope launch his own line of condoms during a September visit to Britain. The document, described as a product of a “blue skies thinking” session at the Foreign Office, […]

LONDON (RNS) The British government was forced to publicly apologize to Pope Benedict XVI over a “foolish” internal memo that suggested, among other things, that the pope launch his own line of condoms during a September visit to Britain.

The document, described as a product of a “blue skies thinking” session at the Foreign Office, suggested among other ideas that the pope might use the tour to launch a line of “Benedict” condoms, bless a gay marriage and sing a duet with Queen Elizabeth II.

The band of government civil servants who authored the paper also suggested Benedict apologize for the 16th-century Spanish armada that fought the English navy, and that he reverse his ban on women priests.


A red-faced Foreign Office told the Vatican over the weekend it was “deeply sorry” for what it described as “this foolish document.”

The BBC reported that the paper was one of three “background documents” that resulted from “some blue skies creative thinking about how to make the (papal) visit a success.”

The Foreign Office told bemused journalists “this is clearly a foolish document that does not in any way reflect the U.K. government or Foreign Office policy or views.”

It added that “many of the ideas in the document are clearly ill-judged, naive and disrespectful” and that the individual mainly responsible had been “transferred to other duties.”

The mocking document has become a major embarrassment to the British government and particularly to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, his immediate predecessor, both of whom have pressed the Vatican for years to arrange a papal visit to Britain.

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