POPE/ Peter Hitchens: "How atheism brought me to faith,"

From atheism to faith. It's the personal story of Peter Hitchens, award-winning British journalist, age 59, who titled his latest book The Rage Against God, where he describes his conversion from militant atheism and from Trotskyism to Anglican faith and to conservative positions. A path that led him to beliefs contrary to those of his brother, the writer Christopher Hitchens, one of the most vocal anti-Christian polemicists alive.

We interviewed Peter Hitchens on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Great Britain, where he has been since yesterday until September 19th for the beatification of John Henry Newman. An occasion to take stock of the opportunities associated with what is presented as a historical event and, at the same time, very delicate in terms of diplomacy.

Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI started his visit to Great Britain. Do you think it will be a positive opportunity for your country, and why?

I am sure it will be a positive opportunity. I doubt very much if Britain will take it. The visit was arranged by the last government, for reasons which remain unclear. Its centrepiece, the Beatification of John Henry Newman, is a mystery to most English people who - being religiously illiterate- have barely heard of Newman and have little interest in his status.

The Roman Catholic Church in Britain is generally liberal in character, and (I suspect) not friendly to the conservative opinions of Benedict. So I do not think there is any great will for the visit to succeed. The English people, though largely indifferent to religion and ignorant of differences between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism which would once have concerned them, can easily be whipped into anti-Catholic bigotry especially on the subject of priestly sex abuse.

What do you think about the position of Richard Dawkins, and your brother Christopher, who asked to prosecute Benedict XVI for crimes against humanity?

I think it is ridiculous.

Benedict XVI will meet the victims of paedophile priests in Great Britain. Will it help to heal the wounds of those who suffered abuses?

I certainly hope so. But those who wish to use this issue to attack the Roman Catholic church will not desist, whatever happens. You would think, from the way they carry on, that the Roman Catholic Church instructed its priests to abuse children, and that no children had ever been abused in liberal secular institutions. The real issue here is the growing secularist fury against Christianity.

In your book The Rage Against God you write that the fear played a part in your return to the religion. Do you think the origin of the religion is the feeling of fear, or what else?

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