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Pope's Visit to UK


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Papal visit: Bad tripper, good trip

There are powerful arguments against Benedict XVI's visit – but the head of the Catholic church is a force that cannot be ignored

The Guardian, Monday 6 September 2010

The Vatican is no ordinary state, and the pope's trip to Britain this month will be no ordinary state visit. No other leader who comes to these shores takes time out between the official meetings and dinners to conduct a beatification, as Benedict XVI plans to do. None, probably not even the president of the United States, would expect to draw the same crowds, attract the same adulation – or stir the same resentment. It will be a big deal. The gathering storm over the cost of £10m or so to the taxpayer needs to be placed in that context. Proselytising atheists are encouraging public resentment against the expense of policing the pope's visit, and yet the same gang are inflaming these costs by suggesting that they will try to arrest him. The financial argument is a distraction, a mere veil for deeply held feelings about whether or not it is right for Whitehall to roll out the red carpet for the world's greatest theocrat.

The moral case against Benedict is powerful – and persuasive. For all the admirable work against poverty that Roman Catholicism inspires around the world, the church directly aggravates the plight of vulnerable people. It rails against IVF giving children to the childless, against stem-cell research giving hope to the sick, and against the use of condoms – even as a means of preventing the spread of HIV. Its rigid views on homosexuality and the role of women are not unique in world religion, or even within Christianity, but the extent of child abuse for which its priests have been responsible has been shocking, as has its tendency to close ranks in response to the scandal. Benedict himself, an arch-conservative, has in the past manoeuvred to preserve the autonomy of the church in such matters, as opposed to having them immediately handed on to the police. He has also indulged the standing of Catholic figures who have turned a blind eye to Nazi atrocities.

A case against Benedict, however, is not the same thing as a case against allowing him a state visit. All manner of tyrants have been welcomed to London over the years, and – to take one example – the human rights record of China, which is uniformly dismal where the Vatican's is mixed, was no bar to President Hu Jintao enjoying a grand trip in 2005. Purists would make a stand against flattering thuggery in all circumstances, but most of the rationalistic punters protesting against the pope's visit would accept that peace and prosperity often rely on dealing with power as we find it, as opposed to power as we might like it to be. The argument then comes down to claiming that the Vatican is not a proper state, a point recently run by the philosopher AC Grayling, who speculated on what treatment world leaders would give him if he declared his south London garden a nation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/06/pope-state-visit-argument

Who is happy he is coming?

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Me Im a catholic

dnt turn this into 1 of your conspiracy threads and try and tarnish my beautiful religion

I dont see any conspiracys theorys in the atrocities the Vatican has done throughout the ages

Good for you that you have love for your religion but just find the whole worshipping the Pope thing wrong

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catholicism is a religion by itself

why did they change the day of sabbath to sunday, no one has ever explained that to me

because sunday was the traditional day of rest for the romans, so when the roman empire become Christian, they changed it to sunday to make the transition easier for the people.

I'm happy the Pope is coming to England. I'm not Catholic specifically, but I am Christian. Might go to the London thing

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if hes comin to Manchester i may go see what hes sayin

bang bang born catholic gang

pos and c/s

/

if you man ever get the chance to go lourdes i suggest you take it

it was an amazing experience, i got to witness the power of god that day it was so surreal that no VIP post can ever give it justice

i have witneseed god's omnipotence and omnibenevolence on many occasions and i believe he is the almighty creator who died to relinquish us of all our wrong doing, contempt for our fellow man and purge us of our sins

CHRIST HAS DIED, CHRIST HAS RISEN, CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN

AVE MARIA, GRATIA PLENA

DOMINUS SECUM, VIRGO SERENA

:Y: :Y: :Y: :Y: :Y: :Y:

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Guest Awesome Kong

salle_12.jpg

by the way.... that's SUPPOSE to be "Jesus" ... but if you understand they're MYSTERY BABYLON it is the beast coming from the bottomless pit.

If that is meant to be jesus, it looks like a white man. Lets be serious, Jesus wasn't white.

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salle_12.jpg

by the way.... that's SUPPOSE to be "Jesus" ... but if you understand they're MYSTERY BABYLON it is the beast coming from the bottomless pit.

interesting. elaborate? or links?

/

i have nothing against his visit.

i think the catholic church is in bondage, all this hype for one man? God's 'representative on earth' :/

alot of their beliefs are too weird. but theres many things wrong with the other churches too,

but with 1 billion+ catholics...that amount of sheep cant be ignored

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