The Vatican

[feminazi]

My boyfriend wants us to visit The Vatican when we visit Italy this summer. I'm not keen.

Yes, it's a beautiful, historical, place. But at the same time, it's racist, sexist, and has covered up child abuse. At the same time, many countries are guilty of these moral crimes...

What do you think of it?

I think that no-one should ever go on holiday to a place which has practices that they find objectionable.

So as long as you are applying the same standards to all potential destinations, then I think your BF should respect your opinion.

It's not as if there's a shortage of other places in Rome you could go to (together, or for you solo whilst he sees whatever in the Vatican he's interested in)

I am an atheist and I have visited the Vatican and also some of the other churches in Rome. I treated them all as a tourist attraction/museum.

It depends how much you would want to see the art and architecture there. If you really feel that your principles prevent you from seeing the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Raphael's Transfiguration, Caravaggio's Entombment of Christ, the Laocoon and the Belvedere Torso, then that is your decision to make.

Some people might think this was cutting off your nose to spite your face. Others might say there is slightly more to the Roman Catholic Church than you think. But really, if that's how you feel, then no one is going to force you to go.

It depends how much you would want to see the art and architecture there. If you really feel that your principles prevent you from seeing the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Raphael's Transfiguration, Caravaggio's Entombment of Christ, the Laocoon and the Belvedere Torso, then that is your decision to make.

Some people might think this was cutting off your nose to spite your face. Others might say there is slightly more to the Roman Catholic Church than you think. But really, if that's how you feel, then no one is going to force you to go.

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I think my boyfriend will go either way, so I would have to find something else to do whilst he was there.

I know it's hypocritical, but there's just something creepy about the Vatican. I can't quite put my finger on it! I still have a bit of time to decide, so we will see.

Out of interest do you watch BBC television, football or avoid these too because of their child abuse scandals and sexist problems?

Just knowing that Cardinal Pell is sitting on his lardy, pedophile ass in that place, protected from ever facing police questioning, much less a court of law or consequent justice is enough for me never to step foot there.

"I know it's hypocritical, but there's just something creepy about the Vatican"

I didn't find it creepy, just very, very crowded. There are loads of things to do in Rome. If you don't want to visit the Vatican then don't.

Long queues and crowds in the heat of summer might be enough to put me off anyway.

We went a few years ago (during an autumn halfterm) - well, the museum has some good stuff in it, and looking at the Sistine Chapel realising that the cardinals get to use it made me comprehend how they might come to have some pretty odd perspectives on the world. We didn't bother queuing again for St Peters.... dh and i had been before, and whereas although an atheist I usually find theres something about the atmosphere of English cathedrals which resonates, that place left me stone cold. Not sure why, it was before the various sex crimes had come to public knowledge.

So, anyhow - if you don't want to go, lots of other stuff in Rome (get the train to Ostia Antica too!)

I found it hot and stuffy inside the Vatican in October. I wouldn't want to look round it in summer.

I went to the Vatican about 14 years ago. I was on the turn to being an atheist at the time. I love visiting religious places as museums or for architectural merit. The Vatican left me cold. So much wealth, so much influence, and yet near the railway station from whence we arrived, beggars, drunks, those in difficulty. I just thought if the Papacy sold even a tiny bit of the gaudy crap in his city it would help those people. The whole place is built on a lie, and I was glad to leave.

The Roman stuff is far more interesting. I liked it because there civilisation died. It was rotten too. But for the fact It collapsed is the reason to rejoice in it.

Is your bf religious at all? If so, it may be his pilgrimage, if he is a mere tourist, avoid like a biblical plague.

I'm an atheist who visited the Vatican. I saw it as a museum, I guess. I hate the Catholic church but enjoy expanding my knowledge.

They have fucking collection boxes in there! The wealth and opulence: the world's richest art collection, and they're asking ME for money???