Having a Pop at the Pope.
I was all set to have a nice little knee-jerk rant this morning.
Pope’s visit to cost the tax payer £12 million?
Whee, here I go. God’s sake, t’would be cheaper to give all the Catholics a ticket to go to Rome wouldn’t it? Hmmn, better check a few facts first….
4.6 million UK residents declared themselves to be Catholic at the last census; that was a surprise, so £3 a head each would cover that phenomenal bill for security? But it’s not £3 a head is it? We are all paying that bill – perhaps I can go on the ‘but this is a Church of England country’ kick, subsidising a minority religion…..
Cue surprise No 2 –
A survey of 37,000 churches, shows the number of people going to Sunday Mass in England averaged 861,000, compared with 852,000 Anglicans.
Churchgoing in Anglican and Catholic parishes had stood at about a million each for the past 10 years, though the relative equality in their numbers over recent years is surprising considering that there are 25 million people who regard themselves as Anglicans, and only 4.2 million Catholics.
The Catholic population may only represent 8% of our total population but 25 % of them actively support their church, so perhaps that £12 million to give 8% of the population the chance to see their number one man is not such bad value after all when you compare it to the estimated £36 million pound cost of security for the 2012 Olympic sailing events, which will almost certainly not be avidly followed by 8% of the population…..
August 18, 2010 at 14:42
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As I’m not a Catholic I really don’t see why I should be paying for Benny
of the Hitler Youth’s summer holiday here in the UK. Apart from anything else,
he’s had far too close an involvement in the RC paedo priests cover ups over
the years (as someone else has already said). Let him pay for himself &
his friends if he wants but don’t expect me to.
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August 18, 2010 at 06:49
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Well, as a semi practicing Catholic I don’t agree with the Pope, who I
think has behaved shamefully over the years concerning child abuse allegations
and other matters, don’t want my or any one else’s taxes to pay for him to
come here, and don’t give a fig for the Olympics and don’t want my taxes
paying for that either. A full house!
Gildas the Late
- August 18, 2010 at 01:06
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look – this head of state crap is just a fig-leaf. We don’t pay gazillions
for the head of state of Andorra or Monaco to visit. So thats a nonsense
argument.
If he is visiting as head of a major world religion , then the bill for
that should be met by the chursh. In times of austerity this seems like a VERY
avoidable cost…..
- August 17, 2010 at 22:18
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Who invited him and why?
- August 17, 2010 at 21:17
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- August 17, 2010 at 18:53
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Why do so many of his hangers-on need to stay in 1st class hotels?
I’m sure that YMCA hostels will be more appropriate. [For accommodation,
entertainment & pleasure.]
- August 17, 2010 at 19:29
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Yep, with you there Joe. I’ve read me Cadfael; visiting god-botherers
usually get a cell all to themselves and first go at the gruel in the
morning. Seems straightforward to me.
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August 17, 2010 at 18:08
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Both the Olympics and the visit by Herr Ratzinger are a ridiculous waste of
money that should never have been stolen from the tax-payer in the first
place, but seeing that it now has been stolen, it would be a far more
Christ-like enterprise to spend it on widows and the fatherless than on this
twaddle.
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August 17, 2010 at 18:48
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EV,
I completely and totally agree with you.
- August 17, 2010 at
18:50
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August 17, 2010 at 21:18
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“spend it on widows and the fatherless”
Not too sure about that EV, do you know how many fatherless children
there are on inner city estates UK wide, could cost a bloody fortune!
- August 17, 2010 at 21:55
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Point taken, but the Biblical meaning is one whose father had died, not
cleared off with Tracey from the Crown and Anchor.
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August 18, 2010 at 13:24
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Did Herr Ratzinger not hold the position of head of the modern day
equivalent of the inquisition, comforting thought really.
- August 17, 2010 at 17:40
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Well I don’t know. A lot of Anglicans are looking like becoming Catholics,
so this could be better value than one might think. Unless Tony Blair is
involved in this in some way.
- August 17, 2010 at 17:38
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As well being Leader of the Roman Catholic Church and the Head of State of
a (small) country he’s also deeply entangled with many of the child rape
scandals that are curently echoing around the world. The Pope’s involvement or
not in these cases appears to be open to debate.
I’m not sure we should be paying a single penny for him to visit the UK
until these case are all resolved and he is proved not to have been
invovled.
- August 17, 2010 at 17:27
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How much does it cost when other heads of state visit? It does not matter
he is head of the Catholic Church if he costs more than other heads of state
then we should rightly ask the Catholic Church to put more money towards
paying if he is about the same or less then what is the problem?
- August 17, 2010 at 15:54
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Let the Catholic Church pay for it themselves. They are a wealthy
organisation and its their church members who want the man to visit. I do not
want to pay one penny for the Pope’s visit which is of absolutely no interest
to me.
- August 17, 2010 at 14:17
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The papal visit was another one of Gordon Brown’s PR attempts which should
go some way to explain both the costs and the unnecessary nature of the visit.
Which as I say that as a Catholic.
- August 17, 2010 at 13:50
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How many Heads of State use state visits as a marketing opportunity for
their own brand tat? And doesn’t the venue get a piece of the pie?
Just askin’, is all.
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