Paisley’s attack on Pope rests on a bedrock of ignorance and blind bigotry

IT is a pity that Ian Paisley’s blind religious bigotry directed at the Catholic Church can get such free rein in the press and with little or no counter comment.

His comments would most likely be dubbed inflammatory or worse if directed at any faith other than Catholicism.

That he is as ill-informed about the Protestant faith as he is about Catholicism is but a measure of his visceral bigotry which, like every sort of bigotry, can only exist on a bedrock of ignorance. In respect of his latest remarks that the Pope – “an anti-Christ” – claims the divine power to forgive sin, Paisley needs to be reminded that we are all, whether Catholic or Protestant, taught to exercise forgiveness, to forgive others their trespasses even as we ourselves are forgiven.