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The Pope
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Did anyone else watch last night's documentary about the Pope?
The Protest the Pope campaign believe that, whilst he is entitled to freedom of movement and his freedom of speech, his state visit should not be state funded due to his controversial views and the fact that the Catholic church has around $50billion in assets.
The current Pope is a man:
There will be a protest for people who disagree with his visit next weekend. Details are on Facebook and the site above.
Thoughts?
The Protest the Pope campaign believe that, whilst he is entitled to freedom of movement and his freedom of speech, his state visit should not be state funded due to his controversial views and the fact that the Catholic church has around $50billion in assets.
The current Pope is a man:
- Who opposes the universal decriminalisation of homosexuality and equal rights for LGBT people
- Who opposes abortion even for the most vulnerable women
- Who opposes birth control which leads to over population and the spread of AIDS
- Who rehabilitated a holocaust denier to the church
- Who refuses to address and properly deal with child abusing priests
- Who believes that ordaining female priests is on a par with paedophilia
There will be a protest for people who disagree with his visit next weekend. Details are on Facebook and the site above.
Thoughts?
0
Comments
Even if it was a really nice man, the taxpayer should not be footing the enormous bill the visit will incurr. Despite what some might claim, this is not a State Visit.
But as you point out above, the man is actually an unpleasant, nasty piece of shit in charge of a disturbing organisation. All the more reason not to pay for his visit. The extraordinarily wealthy Catholic Chuch can foot the bill.
Unacceptable bigotry will always be so, even if some try to dress it as 'deeply held religious beliefs'. For as long as the Pope and his church continue to be homophobe scumbags, they should be confronted as such.
You're preaching to the choir, largely. I guess sometimes the futility of it makes me apathetic. That and protests - the protesters I've met make me cringe a lot of the time.
From what I saw, it was about his involvement in it all, how much he knew etc, and in one case his reluctance to ex-communicate(or whatever) a priest convicted of years of child abuse because of the high rate of preists leaving the church: http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_8985000/8985835.stm
I have some devoutly Catholic relatives that haven't been to church since he became Pope. I think it's shocking that he's only apologised once for this.
I think that the humanitarian implications of his influence could easily be compared to an authoritarian dictator. What really gets me is how he seems to be beyond reprehension. It will be a happy day when he finally dies/is shot.
The Holy See is, under "International law", a State. The Pope is the head. I'd say that pretty much makes this a state visit.
However, we should not let that detract from the fact that he is also the head of an odious organisation with a awful past and present. Protest away.
i see your point mok but in my view it doesnt forgive for what he has done. personally hes using religon as protection from whats happened ................
I never said that he should be forgiven anything, just that he has the right to be treated as Head of State. Because he is one.
I don't think he's using religion as protection from anything. I think he is part of a massive cover up that is possible behind that facade of the Catholic Church hierarchy.
The main thing it will achieve is for the story in every media outlet in the world to be "Pope met with mass protests (pun intended, of course) in UK visit."
Not necessarily. If any other head of state happened to have another interest in Britain, they could quite feasibly visit the UK without it being a state visit. Hell, when politicians go abroad on holiday, it's not a state visit. If he's here on a state visit, then let's see the same press conference that Obama or Sarkozy has to deal with. But no, it will just be the same arse-kissing and zero inquiry that the Saudi king enjoyed.
http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2010/09/14/star-wars-emperors-theme-heard-on-the-wind-as-popes-visit-approaches/
We trade with the Philippines, South America and the EU - the common link being their Catholic faith. Piss off the Church and what do you think would happen?
NB Someone today suggested that Pope to God is the similar to Darth Vader and the Emperor. That amused me.
If there is one area in which the Church has a rival of equal power, is the business & financial world. Money talks even more than the Almighty.
I don't know what kind of level of 'pissing off' you are thinking of, but short of killing the Pope on live TV by shafting a red hot poker up his arse, no country is going to review its trading ties with Britain, no matter how 'Catholic' it might be, because of any offence caused to the Pope here.
What, by handing out free condoms and having comprehensive sex education programmes, like all of these countries now do, for example? The Catholic church doesn't run these countries, and when it comes down to it, every country in the world will put their economic interests ahead of some lip service to a religion their population kinda follows. Put simply, the UK is way more powerful than the Vatican, and every Catholic country on the planet would piss off the Vatican before losing the UK as a significant trading partner. If morals were ever a factor in such decisions, then we never would've had the Saudi king in the country.
In before anyone says "the pope and mj were both kiddy fiddlers looool!!111one"
Underestimate people's faith at your peril. Underestimate politicians wishes to please their voters at your peril.
Money talks to an extent. The Catholic Church is far reaching and talks to, what followers perceive as, their soul.
You are taking a UK population perspective there. The benign, apathy that represents the majority approach in the UK. It's not reflected in other countries and you need to think as they do.
And nothing that's going to be said or done against the Pope this time will do anything this time either.
I don't know how much you know about every day Catholics, but I know plenty who wipe their arses with what the Pope and the Vatican have to say about such issues as contraception, abortion or homosexuality. And they are full-on, church-going ones as well.
I don't care either way, because I've never been a believer of kissing arse of cunts for the sake of a quick buck. But as it happens, no harm will be done this time regardless of the scale of the protests.
But we're shelling out for it though. All of the policing involved and half of the transport / accommodation (I wonder if that includes the popemobil?)etc is being paid for by the tax payer. It's looking to be about 20mil, all told
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/15/popes-visit-your-essential-guide
Unfortunately (for me) the interviewer neglected to ask him for his definition of a State after he repeatedly asserted "this place'' is not a State.
(Unless he did and it was edited out ?)
My barse is a state.
Imagine my surprise.
Hmmmm. I get what you're saying but Fry did briefly point out why he thinks the Vatican isn't a 'state'. He may have expounded more but the clip is very limited of time.
Having said that, the Vatican is only 0.17 square miles, has around 830 inhabitants, it is not a member of the United Nations, it has no diplomatic service (it's the Holy See that conducts diplomatic relations on its behalf), does not host embassies etc. It's only called a 'state' because of Mussolini's treaty back in 1929.
So we are hosting a 'state' visit, costing millions of Pounds, for somewhere that is in all reality, is just a bunch of mainly religious buildings and open spaces - a sort of supersize church building in a way.