Tatchell to present “Protest the Pope” documentary for Channel 4
Channel 4 has angered leading Catholics by commissioning Peter Tatchell, the gay rights campaigner and outspoken critic of the Vatican, to make a documentary about the Pope.
The broadcaster chose Mr Tatchell to front a 60-minute programme to be transmitted around the time of Pope Benedict XVI’s planned visit to the UK in September.
Mr Tatchell is one of the founders of a group called Protest the Pope, which criticises the Pope’s record on homosexuality, contraception and child abuse and says that he “is an unsuitable guest of the UK government”.
Channel 4 said that the programme will examine the impact that the Pope’s pronouncements have had on both the developing and Western world, and that it will give voice to a range of views on the Pope.
“There is nothing surprising in the continued frantic jumping up and down by the Guardian/Channel 4/BBC axis in opposition to the Pope,” said James MacMillan, the composer, who is a devout Catholic. “Their venom is now so repetitive that it has lost any potency it once had. Frankly, people are getting bored with them.”
Mr Tatchell defended the programme, saying: “This will be a robustly factual programme that explores the Pope’s personal, religious and political journey since the 1930s, as well as the motives and effects of his controversial policies.”
The British Humanist Association is a founding member of the Protest the Pope campaign which is organising events this year to protest the state visit.
