The Foreign Office has been forced to issue an apology after an official document suggested Britain should mark the Pope's visit by asking him to open an abortion clinic.

The document, obtained by the Sunday Telegraph, also suggested Benedict XVI could:

:: bless a gay marriage;

:: launch a range of Benedict-branded condoms;

:: apologise for the Spanish Armada;

:: sing a song with the Queen for charity.

:: show his hard line on the sensitive issue of child abuse allegations against Roman Catholic priests by "sacking dodgy bishops" and launching a helpline for abused children.

The ideas were included in a paper titled "The ideal visit would see..." which was distributed to officials in Whitehall and Downing Street preparing for the historic visit in September.

Many of the proposals appeared to mock the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church on issues like abortion, homosexuality and contraception and the difficulties which it is currently experiencing over cases of child abuse.

The Foreign Office apologised for what it described as a "foolish" document and said the individual responsible had been transferred to other duties.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband was said to have been "appalled" to hear of the paper, and Britain's Ambassador to the Vatican, Francis Campbell, has met senior officials of the Holy See to express the Government's regret.

The Foreign Office confirmed that the memo was drawn up by a small group of three or four junior staff in a team working on the papal visit.

The document was withdrawn after it was circulated to more senior staff.

An investigation was launched after some recipients of the memo objected to the disrespectful tone of the paper.

Yes but having the Pope bless a load of gay weddings would have been fun to see.

I don't particularly like this pope. However i'm really annoyed with the fact that it's fine to make fun of RC but try doing that with any other religion. (possibly CofE). If you don't like the idea of RC, don't bother with them and the religion will die out, instead of trying to make it do things that are against its belief.

CofE is fair game, and gets lambasted too. It’s a Islam lot who seem handy with knives and worry people as a result. So what you won’t get are jokes starting “This Imam walked into a bar…”. Look at the South Park problem.