SOUTHWARK, England (ChurchMilitant.com) – A homosexual author who was disinvited from addressing a Catholic school called Pope Benedict XVI “a dick” who “spreads AIDS.”
The writer’s newly resurfaced tweets reveal a history of venomous anti-Catholic bigotry.
John Wilson, archbishop of Southwark
Simon James Green, who accused Abp. John Wilson of homophobia after the prelate banned him from promoting his LGBTQ+ teen fiction novels at the John Fisher School, Croydon, said he hoped “the vile pope gets the reception he so richly deserves.”
Green’s tweets attacking Benedict on his 2010 apostolic visit to the United Kingdom have resurfaced on social media as teachers at John Fisher School went on strike supporting the Christianophobic writer.
Benedict Bashing
Supporting a leaked government communiqué that suggested the visiting pontiff might like to launch his own brand of condoms and open an abortion ward, Green tweeted: “The pope and Catholic Church deserve to be mocked in the foreign office memo.”
Green added: “A condom: goes over the dick & stops AIDS. A pope: is a dick & spreads AIDS. Use a condom, shun the pope. #ThePopeSpreadsAIDS.” In a follow-up tweet, the gay activist author commended rabid atheist Richard Dawkins’ plans to arrest the pope.
Britain’s ambassador to the Vatican, Francis Campbell, offered a formal apology for the memo after practicing Catholic cabinet minister Jim Murphy, who was overseeing the papal visit, blasted the missive as “absolutely despicable, vile, insulting [and] an embarrassment.”
“We don’t need to listen to religious nuts (pope) who believe in fairy tales (Bible),” Green wrote in another tweet.
In 2011, Green tweeted his disdain for Christian opposition to solemnizing same-sex marriage in churches, insisting “the U.K. is not the place for your silly church.”
Ironically, the writer, who is eager to promote his books and his ideology in Catholic schools, also attacked religious schools, tweeting: “Faith schools of any sort have no place in modern Britain. Doesn’t matter what religion. Education should be fact-based.”
Blaspheming Mary
In 2013, Green said he was “really disappointed” that the sandwich chain Pret A Manger had “caved in to religious nutters” and withdrawn a new “Virgin Mary” brand of crisps.
Catholic groups, including popular British author Dcn. Nick Donnelly, complained the product was offensive for its reference to the Mother of God.
A selection of tweets by Simon James Green
Green’s novel Noah Can’t Even, which the author was hoping to publicize at John Fisher School, contains a blasphemous parody of the Lord’s Prayer, Church Militant earlier reported. Green claims the scene was taken out of context and is meant to illustrate homophobic bullying.
“Literature that insults the Faith, which in the case of Mr. Green’s book was a highly sexualized rewriting of the Lord’s Prayer, understandably causes offense to many Christians and, as such, has no place in a Catholic school,” the archdiocese of Southwark stressed.
In March, archbishop of Southwark John Wilson fired governors at John Fisher School after they defied a diocesan directive telling the school to cancel a book-signing event by a writer of LGBTQ+ teen fiction.
Green Gaslights
Green raged on Twitter against the cancellation, noting what he is “most worried about [is] the message it sends to LGBT kids at that school and in general — that, somehow, they are wrong and inappropriate, and everything they are is kind of sinful and problematic.”
“There is nothing LGBT in those books at all,” Green falsely claimed, defending his works as comedy novels with LGBT+ characters and “occasional kissing” but “nothing … you wouldn’t find in pretty much any young adult novel that’s published today.”
However, after reading several pages from Green’s books, well-known Muslim psychologist Dr. Kate Godfrey-Faussett told Church Militant such literature “is primarily about sexualizing children and should raise multiple red flags regarding child protection issues.”
Muslim psychologist Dr. Kate Godfrey-Faussett
Dr. Godfrey-Faussett, a leading British campaigner against the LGBT+ indoctrination of children, elaborated:
What is of extreme concern is that in the literature on child sexual abuse, exposing a child or young person to sexually suggestive material and/or talking to them about sexual matters is one of the key stages of grooming. It serves to normalize and desensitize the child or young person to sexual acts in preparation for the final abuse.
Meanwhile, following strike action by teachers, John Fisher has agreed to invite another LGBTQ+ writer in the next academic year.
The school’s chaplain, Fr. James Clark, who alerted parents about the event “promoting the literature of a lifestyle choice that is contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ,” was forced to resign after staff rebelled at the school.
The archdiocese of Southwark did not respond to Church Militant’s request for comment.