Pope Benny the Ratzinger is visiting the U.K. soon. Some bright young staffers wrote a Pythonesque memo for internal consumption only. It was leaked to the Right Wing press. Foreign Secretary David Miliband had to apologize to the Pope for thisvery silly memo.
An internal Foreign Office memo about September’s papal visit to Britain, born of a Friday afternoon brainstorming session involving a group of junior civil servants, resulted yesterday in the demotion of a young official and a formal government apology to the Vatican.
The memorandum, apparently written by staff planning events for the four-day visit byPope Benedict XVI, suggested he might like to start a helpline for abused children, sack “dodgy” bishops, open anabortionward, launch his own brand of condoms, preside at a civil partnership, perform forward rolls with children, apologise for the Spanish armada and sing a song with the Queen.
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