Britain: Pope’s visit generates reverence and revulsion

Everyone knew there would be protests when Pope Benedict XVI became the first pontiff to make a state visit to Britain, said Andrew Brown in The Guardian. But demonstrators in London last week really outdid themselves. I certainly “never expected to hear a middle-class crowd that almost filled up Piccadilly chanting ‘F--- the pope.’” Of course, outrage at the pope’s role in covering up for priests who sexually abused children is widespread in Britain, and his visit had even been preceded by calls for a “citizens’ arrest” of the Holy Father. Noted atheist Richard Dawkins posted a blistering attack on his website, calling the pope “an enemy of humanity” who promotes a “depraved, inhuman” philosophy of salvation. But even the organizers of the protest were surprised that more than 10,000 people turned out for the march, waving signs that ranged “from the policy wonkish to the straightforwardly abusive,” including one that read: “Despicable, twisted, vile hypocrite.”

Yet for all that, vastly more British Catholics thronged to cheer the pope than to protest against him, said Johann Hari in The Independent. That was disappointing, to say the least. Prior to becoming pope, then–Cardinal Josef Ratzinger was the enforcer of Catholic canonical law at the Vatican; there, he was directly responsible for the policy of moving predatory priests to new parishes, where they raped children again and again. “More than 10,000 people have come forward to say they were raped as part of this misery-go-round.” How could anyone, particularly a person of faith, support this pope? “What could be more anti-Catholic than to cheer the man who facilitated the rape of your children?”

The anti-pope bigots seem to think only Catholics abuse kids, said George Galloway in the Glasgow Daily Record. The truth is grimmer. Just a few decades ago, child sex abuse happened everywhere in Britain, including on sports teams and in the Boy Scouts—“I was myself sexually abused in the Army Cadet Force”—and most institutions covered it up just as thoroughly as the church did. Yet now, only priests are demonized as chronic abusers. There really is “something ugly about what the pope called the aggressive atheism of modern Britain.”

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Britain is supposed to be a tolerant country, said the Daily Telegraph in an editorial. But “militant secularists” have warped that tradition into “toleration for a narrow spectrum of liberal-approved beliefs”—including gay rights and abortion for all. Christians, particularly Catholics, are now “easy targets for liberal politicians and celebrities who lack the courage to criticize Islam.” Yet Benedict’s critics underestimated him. In his speech to Britons, the pope gave a moving address, apologizing for “the immense suffering caused by the abuse of children,” which he described as “unspeakable crimes.” He also reminded us of the necessity of faith as a balance, and complement, to reason. It’s too early to say whether the papal visit will change any minds, or help restore the once-central place of Christianity in British life. But we can say this: “It was a refreshing and challenging experience.”