To have had enough of the Pope and his lackeys now?

[FellatioNelson]

In the news this morning: The Pope's adie will no longer be coming with him to the UK after making an unfortunate comment that:

On arriving at Heathrow it's like being in a third world country'

and:

Britain is in the grip of an agressive new atheism'.

Well the last comment is obviously a pathetic attempt to try and justify the anger directed at the Vatican over the disgraceful handling and cover-up of rife paedophilia and other forms of child abuse in the RC church. Clutching at straws methinks. As thought he only reason we would oppose to any of that is because we don't beleive in God.

But on earth are we to make of the first comment?

Pope's aide, sorry.

Sorry - so many typos in that post - hope you can get the gist.

Oh come on. The second comment is true and it's nothing to do with covering up the abuse. You only have to read MN to see how aggressive people can be about religion, all religion that is, not Catholicism.

Not just Catholicism I meant. The typos are catching!

I have no interest that he is coming and I am sick of every time he is mentioned people talk about the sex abuse scandal as if it is just a Priest who had a few drinks too many. I know he doesn't care but he just isn't likeable unlike John Paul the second who seemed a thoroughly nice chap.

I don't know about Third World (thought we all had to say Developing World now, naughty pope aides) bit but did they see something in particular that sparked the comment?

Said on the radio this morning that they were hoping that the cameras would pick up Pope B's sense of humour and humble side. Have a feeling that they may not.

Oh the last Pope was a woman-hating, homophobic, paedo-protecting arsehole as well, he just had a better understanding of PR and marketing.

If I wasn;t busy and short of childcare & cash I would be out there on a demo too: while I support the right of this deluded old fart to pop over here for his holidays and see his mates or whatever, I'm not AT ALL happy about it being state-funded when everything else is being cut to the bone.

He should just fuck the fuck off.

I'm Pope dodging today.

The amount of traffic/travel disruption is astounding, and I just couldn't face the prospect.

Oh I see he's arrived. Better turn off the telly then.

If it wasnt for the Empire we once had and the fact that our language has spread around the world we would be a shitty little backwater of a country with very little say in world matters and that is what we are turning back into
so nothing wrong with that statement

People have less morals nowerdays and a lot of that is down to the move away from religion

Yeah, surely there are plenty of Good Catholics who would put him up in the spare room?

People have fewer morals nowadays than when exactly, Barrygarlow? Bit of a sweeping statement.

As an Irish Catholic in Birth Certificate only...I agree that that the Pope has a lot to answer for as head of the Church.

It just annoys me that I cannot air my views on other religions without been seen as a bigot but the Catholics are fair game...

I wont be sorry when he has left the UK though just so people stop taliking about it!!

SGB - was he?

The agression on MN is directed towards the RC church specifically because of recent revelations, and generally, because many find its stance on birth control, gays, women priests and AIDS controlling, damaging the the poor and vulnerable, and just plain and out of date and lacking in compassion and understanding. And if anti-relious aggression comes across on MN that's becasue we debate things passionately all the time and emotionr run high.

But that is MN, not RL. In real life I don't not agree that there is an overwhelming 'aggressive atheism' at all. I would say that on average we are a bunch of apathetic agnostics!

('Fewer' morals...) But that isn't down to the gradual rejection of organised religion - simply that society is more tolerant and incluisive. Given that it seems many representatives of this particular organised religion were willing to preach morality but practice immorality to the point of criminality and collusion, I think that further puts the lie to the idea that only the religious can be moral.

'Good men do good things. Bad men do bad things. But for good men to do bad things you need religion'.....

Which Terminal did he fly into? If it was 5 - then he's obviously insane/deluded/a spoilt kid. If it was Terminal 1,2 or 3, I can totally get where he's coming from. Terminal 2 in particular is third - worldy.

I agree with the second point - it is.

Gawd, I really don't know what is WITH my typing this morning - sorry!

I'd love to know whether he was to refering to the airport specifically or the infrastructure/towns around it, or the colour/race of the locals, or greater London and the UK generally?

Actually, my first experience of the UK through Heathrow made me think "what kind of rubbish place are they running here?!" as we had to walk from the plane across the tarmac, up some concrete side stairs that smelled of piss.

So, I agree with the Third World comment (if he had a similar experience).

Incidentally... "what we are to make of the first comment about 'third world country'?"... is that the dear Cardinal has racist tendencies. He has tried to rationalise his statement by saying it was not meant as an insult but more a reflection of our multicultural society. Get that man a BNP membership form...

I expect the Vatican delegation do see the UK as a heathen, godless country and will treat this visit as the start of some good old fashioned converting of the savages to the path of righteousness. Kasper just said it out loud.

Abs . Heathrow is a disgrace I agree.

Re the Pope & his aides, it is interesting to compare and contrast this visit with the last papal one to the UK by JPII in 1981 (1982?) when attitudes as far as I can remember were very different, people were excited and deferential about this great privilege.

This country is such a different place now in terms of its attitude to religion in general, to the Catholic church given more prominence given to the sex abuse scandals (which I'm sure plenty of people and clergy within the Catholic faith would have been aware of back in the 80s, to Muslim faith. Religion is now to be feared and mocked, look at many attitudes to Islam. People who were once quietly atheist are now more aggressisve, led by Richard Dawkins. It's inevitable that there will be more comment, more grandstanding, more controversy because people have so much more freedom to comment and to put across their message.

However, whether he is right or wrong about the third world thing, it was an incredibly arrogant, stupid, ill-judged and insensitive thing to say under the circumstances. What a knob.

I think Britain is in the grip of an aggressive new atheism tbh. Which as an atheist I think is a good thing, however I think that atheists can be as religious about their beliefs as christians, muslims etc about theirs. Does that make sense (prob not).

In any case I think people are taking an agressive stance as for teh most part we are bloody sick of the powerful part relision plays in everyday life in the UK (such as schools) and would prefer a completely secular state. Which we know we will not get any time soon.

And although heathrow airport is a vile blot on the earth, it cannot be compared to any airports in developing countrys which I have visited. Mind you, the lackey has probably been feted and worshiped with red carpets and parades of cheering schoolchildren at any 3rd world airport he has visited, so his comment is a moot point imo.

lost a ) there. Should be 80s), to Muslim