David Norris (Independent)

I will not dissent from the terms of this motion, although I regret that it was changed and that the message will be sent not to the Camerlengo but to Cardinal Ratzinger, about whom I must say, in the words of an English parliamentarian, I feel there is something of the night. Nevertheless, it is important that we mark this event. I also understand that the motions were placed simultaneously on the Order Papers of both Houses without any consultation — at least in the case of the other House — with the Whips.

Be that as it may. There is no question or doubt that this event is very remarkable. I was abroad and listened to the service. When I heard the solemn bell tolling to mark the funeral of the Pope, I thought of a great piece by the Anglican divine, John Donne, "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions".

XVII. NUNC LENTO SONITU DICUNT, MORIERIS.

Now, this bell tolling softly for another, says to me: Thou must die.

Meditation.

PERCHANCE he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. [...]

Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world?

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Those were my thoughts when I heard of the death of John Paul II, who was undoubtedly a very remarkable man and a charismatic figure. I recall the day of his election, when I was in the city of Coventry writing one of three papers which led, ironically, to the foundation of the International Gay Association, which is still vibrant today. I thought how wonderful it was, but I have been saddened since at the lack of fulfilment of what I saw as the promise of greater liberation, freedom, understanding and humanity. He was a positive, creative and courageous man on some issues. He was opposed to the death penalty and the war in Iraq, for example. I also remember his poignant appeal to the IRA, when he was on his knees in Drogheda. He was largely unsuccessful on such issues.

I feel much less happy about the record of Pope John Paul II in respect of some areas in which he thought he was successful. I regret that he committed himself to authority, rather than honest inquiry, and to the suppression of honest dissent. When I raise such matters I am told that the church is a club, rather than a democracy, and that one has to accept the club's rules when one enters it. Perhaps that is true but, like many people throughout the world, I have not entered the club in question. It is wrong that we are all expected to bend the knee on issues such as those I have mentioned without discussion, honest inquiry or debate, because of the Vatican's political perspective. It is incorrect to try to enforce such rules. There are numerous instances — I refer for example to the issue of AIDS and the recognition of relationships outside marriage — of parliamentarians receiving clear political instructions from Rome on how they should vote. Such interventions are extraordinary.

The papacy of the recently deceased Pope was characterised by an extraordinary facility with the media. A lack of proportion within the Vatican was sometimes exposed by media-driven events. The fact that the Pope, who was a great man, created more saints than any of his predecessors suggests to me a lack of proportion, particularly when I consider the exclusion so far from the list of saints of the late Pope John XXIII, who was one of the most remarkable spiritual leaders of the 20th century. It worries me that he has not been made a saint——