British Government Apologies for Foreign Office Staffers'
Offensive Memo about Pope

As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to visit Britain in September, a brainstorming group in the Foreign Office circulated their ideas for the visit to other government officials, ideas that included the pope opening an abortion clinic. The British ambassador to the Vatican, Francis Campbell, has offered a formal statement of regret to the pope, according to The Guardian.

The e-mail message, sent to the prime minister's office and other agencies in March, has led to outrage and the fear that the visit may be cancelled, the Daily Telegraph reported.

"The British Government has invited the Pope as its guest and he should be treated with respect," said Cardinal Renato Martino, former head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, according to the Belfast Telegraph. "To make a mockery of his beliefs and the beliefs of millions of Catholics, not just in Britain but across the world, is very offensive indeed."

The memo included a number of ugly "ideas," intended to mock the Catholic Church's position on moral issues or to slander it.

A 23-year-old Foreign Office staff member, Steven Mulvain, e-mailed the memo along with a cover letter that said the ideas "should not be shared externally" because they included "even the most far-fetched of ideas," the Daily Telegraph reported.

The senior staff member who authorized Mulvain to distribute it was "transferred to other duties," which has been the only repercussion from the memo so far.

Catholics in Britain are especially worried that the first papal visit to Britain since 1982 will be tarnished by the offensive memo. "There is serious and deep concern that not only was this document created and so widely disseminated, but that it took so long before alarm bells were rung," a "senior Catholic source" told The Scotsman.

"There will be those who begin to ask two questions: was moving the person who created this document sideways sufficient; and secondly, does this question the lead role that the Foreign Office have in the planning for this visit?"