Brendan O'Neill, whom I met recently, is an atheist who writes for Spiked online. Today he has a very good article discussing the Protest the Pope demo. Here is a flavour:
This was less a coherent protest against a real problem, and more a madcap attempt to transform the pontiff into a political pin cushion, into which every group desperately seeking a sliver of purpose could then stick their particular pin. So some were protesting against paedophilia, others against AIDS; some were concerned about Holocaust denial, others about homophobia, and others still about the undermining of human rights. And apparently the pope, taking over from money, is the root of all of these problems and of evil in general, being a wicked, Prada-wearing, Bush-meeting devil and all. Some even waved placards saying ‘STOP STONING’ and ‘Religion flies planes into buildings’, which, correct me if I’m wrong, are problems that are associated with the Islamic faith rather the Catholic one. But who cares. Got a grievance? Pin it on the pope.Read the rest here
3 comments:
Just as a point of fact; my own parents were stoned as teenagers when taking part in May processions in the East End of London (c. 1912)
The attackers were, in the most part, Orangemen from the North of Ireland and other violent Protestant groups.
A rather amazing part of Catholic history.
I Wish Brendan O'Neil was Catholic,a C.S Lewis for Our Times!!!(I Am glad that I have an equal opportunity offender on our side at least)
We get BBC reports in the states on NPR radio. I noticed that days leading up to the visit, they had on a veritable zoo of indignant guests serving up every hoary anti-Catholic whopper in the book. During the visit when it was clear that much of the protest fizzled, the NPR/BBC went dead silent on any mention of the pope and instead opted for upteen stories on the dinginess and dilapidation of the village for the Commonwealth games.
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