The Vatican Body-Count
David Willey & Jack Parsons
2004, 43pp.
ISBN: 1-904791-01-8
£5.00
A study of the Holy See's share of responsibility for excess mother & child deaths and other suffering.
Does the Vatican cause more human suffering than al Qaeda?
This monograph is based on a courageous initiative of the late David A. Willey,
founder and first Director of the UK Optimum Population Trust. Sadly, his tragic
premature death from cancer prevented its completion and publication at that
time. With the ready consent and help of David’s wife, Yvette, it is now taken
up by PPP, updated, and published with a Foreword and an Afterword by Jack
Parsons. (PPP founder/director; author of Population versus Liberty, Human
Population Competition ... and other works).
David’s thesis is that ruthless Vatican opposition to all modern family planning
– especially condom-use, the cheapest, most effective and widespread measure
against HIV/AIDS – inevitably causes huge increases in both mortality and non-fatal
sickness and incapacity. This anti birth control policy is enforced
wherever possible, not merely on Roman Catholics, but – through sinister Vatican
threats and manipulation of the media and international bodies (greatly helped
by its quasi-governmental status) – on all human beings regardless of their
nationality or religious beliefs.
David compared the Vatican death-toll with those of such bloody regimes as Nazi
Germany and Stalinist Russia. He concluded – conservatively he thought – that
between 1968 & 1999 the Holy See was responsible for a death-toll of some 12
million mothers and infants; approximately double that of the Nazi Holocaust.
To be even more cautious, the Editor notes that even if David’s figure is
mistakenly inflated to 1,000% of its true value, this still reflects a human
tragedy some 50% greater than that of the recent Rwandan genocide, a crime which
stirred the conscience of the world.
The Editor takes this line of enquiry a stage further by
asking these disturbing questions:
1) How does the harm done to humanity by Pope John Paul II compare with that
done by Osama bin Laden?
2) How does the Vatican body-count compare with that of the Taliban or al-Qaeda
– even with the combined total of all the many groups presently dedicating
themselves to violence and destruction?
3) Is it conceivable that the Vatican body-count overshadows their combined
score by orders of magnitude?
Most of the criticism of the Vatican reported here is from disenchanted
Catholics, some demanding the most radical reforms – even a prompt end to the
Vatican’s special diplomatic status. The Editor writes:
"It cannot be stressed too strongly that – though edited and published by a
Humanist – this document is not intended as a broadside against religion,
against Catholicism in general, or against the great body of the faithful ...
women and men of the highest intellectual calibre, learning, and moral probity
are to be found on both sides of the great debate on the existence or
non-existence of an omniscient and omnipotent creator ... we must respect each
other while ... we each do our level best to convince the other that our belief
system is the best.
This is a broadside, no doubt about that, but this is aimed at the iron rule of
the small Vatican clique of more or less aged celibates ... by far the largest
... body of opinion rejecting the antedeluvian dogma and prejudices of the old
guard is to be found not merely within the flock of the Roman church, but up to
and including the rank of cardinal – one of whom, the Belgian, Godfried Danneels,
was strongly tipped to be the next pope.
It is our sincere hope that this short document may be able to give a
sufficiently salutary shock to the consciences of enough extra members of the
hundreds of millions of sensible and decent everyday Roman Catholics – who in
their own family and social lives totally reject the archaic and destructive
teachings of the Vatican Hierarchy on sex education, contraception, etc – to
stimulate effective action on their part towards reform.
If by great good fortune it does in some measure achieve this, it should help
with the much-needed reform of their ancient Church and thence to a significant
improvement in the overall quality of human life through a reduction in the
massive amount of mortality and suffering from AIDS and other diseases and in
excess population pressure on scarce resources in general.
A further consideration – one not dealt with in the monograph but which it is
vital to bear in mind – is that, despite its attendant death-toll, in addition
to causing large amounts of unnecessary human suffering and death, Vatican
policy gives a very considerable boost to the world population explosion, most
especially in the poorer countries".
Despite the fact that birth rates have fallen, human numbers grow by about 80
million per year and are expected to increase by around fifty percent over the
next two generations, thereby putting a hugely increased strain on the world’s
support-systems. The populations of Africa – especially that of Sub-Saharan
Africa – are increasing at a huge rate and Prime Minister Blair’s new Commission
on Africa has stressed that it is:
"...
the only continent to have grown poorer in the last 25 years ... because
population growth [has] outstripped economic growth. (paras. 2 & 8)"
JP argues that in a truly enlightened scientific world there can be no place for dogma of any kind in any sphere. There is space and to spare for deeply-held convictions, but all must yield if and when they are proven to be incompatible with fact or logic. In the case of the Roman Church in the person John Paul II, he writes:
"Can we dare to hope that before he vacates his high office through infirmity or death, Pope John Paul II will confer upon a long-suffering world the truly giant boon lying at his fingertips -- by putting a complete and final stop to the campaign against contraception."
It is now too late for John Paul to deliver this great blessing, but there is no valid reason why his successor should not. If he does it, surely his name will be revered for millennia.
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