Cardinal cock of the week

Another Sunday, another bloody interfering priest...

This is Cardinal Keith O'Brien, yet another Catholic who thinks that being a Papist entitles him to stick his nose into politics and tell the governement what to do. The Cardinal accused the Foreign Secretary of doubling overseas aid to Pakistan to more than £445 million without demanding religious freedom for Christians and other religious minorities, such as Shia Muslims.

He claimed that three-quarters of all religious persecution in the world is now directed at Christians, resulting in a collapse in the number of followers in some Middle East countries. On the other hand of course, it could just be that they simply don't like what you are peddling?

He went on to say "In countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, Christians face violence, intolerance and even death because of their beliefs.” Hardly surprising as they are not Christian countries and have put up with centuries of Catholic missionaries trying to show them the error of their ways. Perhaps I should mention the Crusades at this point?

I support freedom of worship - provided it doesn't include you ramming your views down my throat - but it's not right to use aid to enforce it in other countries.

The church is the church. The government is the government. Our government does not insist on people holding specific views in the UK and it is quite wrong to use aid money to blackmail other countries' governments into doing things our way.

( You can read the full story in the Daily Telegraph by clicking here )