Pope protected from arrest

[smudge]

Changing the rules;

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100722/...n-45dbed5.html

[Smiles302]

Imagine the uproar if you arrested the pope...

[skbuncks]

Government response to petition 'ProtestthePope'‏

You signed a petition asking the Prime Minister to disassociate the British
government from the Pope's intolerant views ahead of the Papal visit to
Britain in September 2010. We urge the Prime Minister to make it clear that
his government disagrees with the Pope's opposition to women's reproductive
rights, gay equality, embryonic stem cell research and the use of condoms
to prevent the spread of HIV. We ask the Prime Minister to express his
disagreement with the Pope’s role in the cover-up of child sex abuse by
Catholic clergy, his rehabilitation of the Holocaust-denying bishop Richard
Williamson, and his decree paving the way for the beatification and
sainthood of the war-time Pope, Pius XII, who stands accused of failing to
speak out against the Holocaust. We also request the Prime Minister to
assure us that the Pope’s visit will not be financed by the British
taxpayer.

Her Majesty's Government has responded to that petition and you can view it
here:

http://www.hmg.gov.uk/epetition-resp...ProtestthePope


Her Majesty's Government

Petition information - http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ProtestthePope/

If you would like to opt out of receiving further mail on this or any other
petitions you signed, please email optoutpetitions@hmg.gov.uk

skb

[asthmatic camel]

Needs must when the Devil drives...

[panama]

Needs must when the Devil drives...

...the Popemobile? Didn't know he had a license!

[Matt]

Antonio Federici will protest the pope by defying the ASA's latest ruling on thier offensive to some catholics advertising campaign.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11300552

My stern look of disapproval masks a childish giggle.

[Harryprice]

I thought we were supposed to be in an age of austerity, saving public money. Why wasn't this 'state visit' cancelled months ago? Or, if not cancelled, the entire bill sent to the Vatican?

We're even being called a 'third world country' by a Catholic cardinal who is an adviser to the Pope. Seriously, who even wants this lot visiting apart from RCs?

"He also was reported to have criticised British Airways, saying that when you wear a cross on the airline "you are discriminated against"."

Ironically, in many real "third world countries" someone wearing a cross would given better treatment!

I'm with the Guardian letter writers!

[newatheist]

Something funny happened today. I was in college and my form tutor brought up the topic of the pope's visit to the UK, and one of my classmates asked why there was so much hate directed at the pope, I replied "paedophile".

As soon as he heard that he nearly lost it, apparently he "will not tolerate that kind of language' in his classroom. Going on about how he is a catholic and that it is really offensive to his faith and that what what I said was slanderous. He would not let me speak another word.

And just like that I lost all respect for yet another teacher.

PS: He's apparently very high up at the Nation Union of Teachers. I couldn't find his name on their website and I only know his surname.

[tolman]

Antonio Federici will protest the pope by defying the ASA's latest ruling on thier offensive to some catholics advertising campaign.

More like:

Random food company wants to get cheap publicity by trying to be sensationalist.
Probably means product is rather more mediocre than they claim it is.

[Pebble]

Recognition at last! Wouldn't it be great if this was the defining story of the next few days.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11317441


Cardinal Walter Kasper reportedly told a German magazine the UK was marked by "a new and aggressive atheism".

[bindeweede]

Sorry if this is distasteful.

Actually, no I'm not.

[tolman]

Cardinal Walter Kasper reportedly told a German magazine the UK was marked by "a new and aggressive atheism".

Maybe he'd prefer it if we went back to our old-time-religious stance of state-enshrined anti-Catholicism?

Back to a time when we didn't partake in the bizzare fiction that a little spot of land run by supposedly celibate men is actually some kind of proper state, meaning the Pope could either pay for his own visit, or just stay at home, like any other random foreigner.

[DrS]

Recognition at last! Wouldn't it be great if this was the defining story of the next few days.

I must say that this was my immediate reaction too! The irony that we might celebrate what he intends as a huge insult obviously passes him by ... by a mile.

[Pebble]

In a way I think this is a remarkably sensible approach - getting all fired up simply hardens views on the other side. A strong but parallel press presence is probably best.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11294941

Tim Maguire, spokesman for the Humanist Society of Scotland, said: "Scotland has a nasty and long history of sectarian violence so we are not taking to the streets to protest."

[tolman]

>>"Austen Ivereigh, co-ordinator of Catholic Voices - a group set up to put the Church's view during the visit- said Protest the Pope was a loosely-aligned group with an intellectual position that had no popular support."

Sure - there's absolutely no popular support for the idea that the pope should pay his own way, like anyone else.

There's no support for people commenting on the Catholic Church's systematic institutional blind-eye-turning to child abuse.

There's no support for the idea that homophobia and sexism are wrong and outdated.

There's no support for the idea that the pope and his ilk shouldn't be interfering with attempts to give women reproductive choice in countries where population growth is quite evidently a really bad thing for the people.

Still, to be fair, I guess the opposition to condoms does also cause some population decline in countries with high rates of HIV, and with lots of lovely suffering involved to help give the souls a fast track to heaven.