Dawkins and Hitchens: arrest the Pope  Apr 13 2010

Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens want to arrest the Pope when he visits Britain in September.

Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the atheist author, have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church. The pair believe they can exploit the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, when he visited Britain in 1998.

Update: The Times article quoted above is a little misleading says Dawkins.

Needless to say, I did NOT say "I will arrest Pope Benedict XVI" or anything so personally grandiloquent. You have to remember that The Sunday Times is a Murdoch newspaper, and that all newspapers follow the odd custom of entrusting headlines to a sub-editor, not the author of the article itself. What I DID say to Marc Horne when he telephoned me out of the blue, and I repeat it here, is that I am whole-heartedly behind the initiative by Geoffrey Robertson and Mark Stephens to mount a legal challenge to the Pope's proposed visit to Britain.

Nonetheless, there is a legal challenge involving the Pope's visit underway, initiated in part by Dawkins and Hitchens. (thx, lots of people)

Popes, they don't make 'em like they used to  Oct 09 2009

Used to be, back in my day, that new Popes were elected by a conclave of cardinals holed up in the Sistine Chapel burning unsuccessful ballots with a chemical compound that produces black smoke until a two-thirds majority is achieved, at which point the ballots are pierced with a needle and thread and burned, producing white smoke that the assembled masses take as a sign that the cardinals have chosen, and the Pope-elect is asked if he wants to be the Pope and, if so, what his Pope-name will be and then he chooses his papal garments from a selection of small, medium, and large -- *not* tall, grande, and venti as you might expect, that being Italy and all -- dons a ring, and is announced to the crowd in St. Peter's Square.

This new way seems much simpler.

Portrait photographer Platon shares some remembrances of  Oct 10 2006

Portrait photographer Platon shares some remembrances of shooting famous people. "Bono told Platon that 'a friend' had made the rosary he wears. Which friend? Oh, the Pope, of course." Here's another interview with Platon. (via conscientious)