Pope condemns organised crime in south Italy visit

Pope Benedict leads the Sunday mass during his one day pastoral visit to the Italian southern city of Lamezia Terme October 9, 2011.

Pope Benedict today condemned “ferocious” organised crime groups in the southern Calabria region, where lawlessness, corruption and underdevelopment have resulted in one of Italy’s highest unemployment rates.

The pope, in a homily for tens of thousands of people from all over the region that forms the “toe” of Italy, said the area seemed to be in a constant state of emergency and that he wanted to encourage the people’s efforts to improve their condition.

“This is an area .... where problems exist in acute and destabilising forms, where crime groups that are often ferocious tear at the social fabric, a land that seems to be in a constant state of emergency,” he said.

Calabria is home to the ‘Ndrangheta, considered among the most dangerous and powerful crime syndicates in western Europe.



Investigators believe that the highly secretive Calabrian group has overtaken the Sicilian Mafia to dominate drug trafficking and extortion rackets in Europe and beyond.

Unemployment in Calabria, one of the most backward regions in Italy despite its potential in industries such as tourism and shipping, is about 32 per cent against a national rate of 7.9 per cent. Youth unemployment peaks at about 50 per cent in parts of the mostly mountainous and coastal region.

Lamezia’s mayor, Gianni Speranza, who has received threats from the mob because of his anti-crime programme, speaking before the pope, called Calabria “a land of suffering ... of unacceptable unemployment, of dramatic injustices and violence.”

In a damning assessment of Italy’s south, US diplomatic cables written in 2008 published by WikiLeaks this year describe Calabria as a region plagued by crooked or ineffective politicians, organised crime and a fatalistic people who are forced to pay protection money to the mob.

US diplomats said in their economic and social assessment that Calabria would be a “failed state” if it were independent.

The pope urged Calabrians to be “strong, hopeful and courageous” as they face the many difficulties in their region.

Combined annual turnover of Italy’s three main crime groups, the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, the Sicilian Mafia and the Neapolitan Camorra, is estimated at €135 billion (RM540 billion), according to business association SOS Impresa.

A clear sign of the ‘Ndrangheta spreading its tentacles into Europe came in 2007 when six Italians were killed in the Germany city of Duisburg in a feud between two of the group’s clans.

Clan links to northern banks and firms have helped them to expand into profitable sectors and recycle profits made from criminal activities, experts say.

Astronauts offer pope unique view of Earth’s woes

A file photo from July 29, 2009 showing Space Shuttle Endeavour's payload bay with Earth in the background. Endeavour and space station crews gathered on May 21, 2011 for an unprecedented conversation with Pope Benedict.

The shuttle Endeavour and space station crews gathered today for an unprecedented conversation with Pope Benedict, who asked how the space programme can promote peace and if the astronauts pray while in orbit.

“I think it must be obvious to you how we all live together on one Earth and how absurd it is that we fight and kill each one,” the pope said.



“When you are contemplating the Earth from up there, do you ever wonder about the way nations and people live together down here, about how science can contribute to the cause of peace?” he asked,” he continued, via a televised link from the Vatican.

The pope added his personal wish for the recovery of Endeavour commander Mark Kelly’s wife, US Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in an January 8 assassination attempt that killed six and injured 12 others.

“Thank you for mentioning my wife, Gabby,” said Kelly. “We fly over most of the world and you don’t see borders, but at the same time we realise that people fight with each other and there’s a lot of violence in this world and it’s really an unfortunate thing.”

The shuttle commander agreed that people fight for many things, such as the ongoing struggle for democracy in the Middle East and for resources such as energy.

“The science and the technology that we put into the space station to develop a solar power capability, pretty much gives us an unlimited amount of energy and if those technologies could be adapted more on Earth, we could possibly reduce some of that violence,” Kelly said.

The pope also had a personal message for space station flight engineer Paolo Nespoli, whose mother died on May 2.

“How have you been living through this time of pain on the International Space Station? Do you feel isolated and alone, or do you feel united amongst ourselves in a community that follows you with attention and affection?” the pope asked, speaking in Nespoli’s native Italian.

“Holy Father, I felt your prayers and everyone’s prayers arriving up here,” Nespoli replied, also in Italian.

“My colleagues aboard the space station were very close to me at this important time, for me a very intense moment,” Nespoli said. “I felt very far, but also very close.”

Astronaut Roberto Vittori, also from the Italian Space Agency, demonstrated microgravity by flipping a coin given to him by the pope, a symbol of the Vatican’s involvement in the mission, the next-to-last for NASA’s space shuttle programme.

The coin will be returned to the pope after Endeavour lands, now scheduled for June 1.

“To live aboard the International Space Station, to work as an astronaut is extremely intense, but we all have an opportunity when the nights come to look out and, more, to look down at Earth. Our planet, the blue planet, is beautiful,” Vittori said.

“I do pray,” he added. “I do pray for me, for our families, for our future.”

The pope asked the astronauts about the environmental health of the planet, as viewed from space.

“On the one hand, we can see how indescribably beautiful the planet that we have been given is, but on the other hand we can really clearly see how fragile it is,” said NASA astronaut Ron Garan, a member of the live-aboard station crew.

“For instance, the atmosphere, when viewed from space, is paper-thin. And to think that this paper-thin layer is all that separates every living thing from the vacuum of space and is all that protects us is really a sobering thought,” Garan said.

What the astronauts find hopeful, Garan added, is the space station itself, a US$100 billion (RM301 billion) project of 16 nations that took more than a decade to build 355 kilometres above the planet.

“That just shows that by working together and cooperating, we can overcome many of the problems that face our planet,” he said.

Before the pope’s call, the Endeavour astronauts spent an hour surveying a 3.3-inch long section of the shuttle’s heat shield damaged by a debris impact during launch May 16.

The crew used the shuttle’s robot arm to sweep a sensor-laden boom over the damaged ceramic tile, located on the ship’s belly. NASA does not expect the damage to be a concern for re-entry, though the astronauts are trained to make repairs if it turns out to more serious than suspected.

Heat shield damage caused the 2003 Columbia accident, which killed seven astronauts.

Endeavour arrived at the space station on Wednesday to deliver the US$2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle detector and spare parts. The crew plans four spacewalks during their 12-day stay, the second of which is scheduled for tomorrow.

Huge crowd descends on Vatican for beatification

A priest uses a bookmark depicting the late Pope John Paul II for his book of the gospels.Pilgrims hold a prayer vigil at the ancient Circus Maximus arena in Rome April 30, 2011
Hundreds of thousands of people converged on St Peter’s Square in one of the biggest crowds ever seen at the Vatican on Sunday to participate in the beatification of Pope John Paul II.

Streams of people some 30 wide moved towards the Vatican area from all directions from before dawn to get a spot for the Mass where Pope Benedict was to move his predecessor a step closer to sainthood.

The crowd of devotees, many carrying national flags and singing songs, was the largest seen in the capital since millions turned out for his funeral six years ago.

Many camped out during the night. The entire Vatican area was sealed off as stewards marshalled the huge crowd in groups of 6,000 at a time towards St Peter’s Square, which was bedecked with posters and photos of the late pope.

Many were from the late pope’s native Poland. Dozens of red and white Polish flags bobbed above the crowd and a cheer went up when a group of Poles released a large banner reading “Thank You, God” held aloft by balloons.



“We were at the funeral and we just had to be here to see him beatified,” said Janusc Skibinski, 40, who drove 29 hours with his family from their home near the border with Belarus.

Up to 200,000 people attended a prayer vigil yesterday evening in the Circus Maximus, the huge oval once used by the ancient Romans for chariot races. Some Rome churches threw their doors open all night to give pilgrims a space to pray.

At the mass due to start at 0800 GMT, Benedict will pronounce a Latin formula proclaiming one of the most popular popes in history a “blessed” of the Church.

A place of honour is reserved for Sister Marie Simon-Pierre Normand, a French nun who suffered from Parkinson’s disease but whose inexplicable cure has been attributed to John Paul’s intercession with God to perform a miracle, thus permitting the beatification to go ahead.



The Vatican will have to attribute another miracle to John Paul’s intercession after the beatification in order for him to be declared a saint.

Some 90 official delegations from around the world, including members of five European royal families and 16 heads of state, will attend the beatification.

They include Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who has been widely criticised for human rights abuses in his country. Mugabe is banned from travelling to the European Union, but the Vatican — a sovereign state — is not a member of the bloc.

Coffin on display

Pope John Paul’s coffin was exhumed on Friday from the crypts below St Peter’s Basilica and will be placed in front of the main altar. After the beatification mass today, it will remain there and the basilica will remain open until all visitors who want to view it have done so.

It will then be moved to a new crypt under an altar in a side chapel near Michelangelo’s statue of the Pieta. The marble slab that covered his first burial place will be sent to Poland.

John Paul’s beatification has set a new speed record for modern times, taking place six years and one month after his death on April 2, 2005.

While the overwhelming number of Catholics welcome it, a minority are opposed, with some saying it happened too fast.

Liberals in the church say John Paul was too harsh with theological dissenters who wanted to help the poor, particularly in Latin America. Some say John Paul should be held ultimately responsible for the sexual abuse scandals because they occurred or came to light when he was in charge.

Ultra-conservatives say he was too open towards other religions, and that he allowed the liturgy to be “infected” by local cultures, such as African dancing, on his trips abroad.

The pope is being beatified on the day the Church celebrates the movable Feast of Divine Mercy, which this year happens to fall on May 1, the most important feast in the communist world.

The coincidence is ironic, given that many believe the pope played a key role in the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.

Timeline: Life and times of Pope John Paul II

People pass by a photo of late Pope John Paul II at the Old town of Krakow.

The late Pope John Paul moved a major step closer to sainthood today at a ceremony that drew more than a million people, the largest crowd in Rome since his funeral six years ago.

Here is a timeline of the pontificate of John Paul.





October 16, 1978 — Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Krakow in Poland elected as first non-Italian pope in 455 years.

June 2-10, 1979 — Returns to his communist-ruled homeland, a trip seen as a factor in the rise of the Solidarity movement.

May 13, 1981 — Shot by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca in St Peter’s Square. Surgery saves his life.

April 13, 1986 — First pope since the times of the apostles to visit a synagogue; calls Jews “our beloved elder brothers”.

December 1, 1989 — Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visits the Vatican and invites Pope John Paul to make a trip to the Soviet Union, an offer the pope was never able to take up because of resistance by the powerful Russian Orthodox Church.

April 21, 1990 — Flies to Czechoslovakia to hail collapse of communism with President Vaclav Havel.

October 31, 1992 — After 359 years, Pope rehabilitates Galileo, condemned by the Church for saying earth turns around the sun.

December 7, 1992 — Issues the Roman Catholic Church’s new universal Catechism — the first in nearly five centuries.

December 28, 1993 — Vatican and Israel forge full diplomatic ties after 2,000 years of Christian-Jewish hostility.

October 31, 1997 — Says Christians failed during the Holocaust.

March 13, 2000 — Asks pardon for the Church’s sins against Jews, heretics, women and minorities.

March 20-26, 2000 — Visits Holy Land, calls for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

May 8, 2001 — In Syria, becomes first pope to enter mosque.

November 22, 2001 — Makes apology for sexual abuse by priests.

August 2002 — Makes last poignant visit to Polish homeland.

January-March 2003 — Campaigns to avert US invasion of Iraq.

April 2, 2005 — Pope John Paul dies.

April 8, 2005 — Funeral is global media event.

May 2005 — Successor Pope Benedict XVI eases timing rules, putting John Paul on fast-track to sainthood.

June 2005 — Sister Marie Simon-Pierre Normand, a French nun, prays to late pope and says it cures her of Parkinson’s disease.

January 14, 2011 — Benedict declares Normand case a miracle and sets John Paul’s beatification for May 1. A further miracle after that date is needed for canonisation, which would make him a saint.

April 29, 2011-Pope John Paul’s coffin is exhumed ahead of his beatification. It will be placed before the main altar inside the basilica. The closed coffin will remain there for viewing and veneration non-stop until everyone who wants to can see it.

April 30, 2011 — Up to 200,000 people attend an evening prayer vigil in the Circus Maximus, the huge oval once used by the ancient Romans for chariot races.

May 1, 2011 — Pope John Paul is beatified in a ceremony in St Peter’s Square that drew more than a million people.

May 2, 2011 — A mass of thanksgiving is to be held in St Peter’s Square. Once everyone who wants to view the coffin has done so, his remains will be moved to their new resting place in a side chapel of St Peter’s Basilica.

Pope book says Jews not guilty of Jesus Christ’s death

Pope Benedict, in a new book, has personally exonerated Jews of allegations they were responsible for Jesus Christ’s death, repudiating the concept of collective guilt that has haunted Christian-Jewish relations for centuries.

Jewish groups applauded the move. The Anti-Defamation League called it “an important and historic moment” and hoped that it would help complicated theology “translate down to the pews” to improve grass roots inter-religious dialogue.

The pope makes his complex theological and biblical evaluation in a section of the second volume of his book “Jesus of Nazareth”, which will be published next week. The Vatican released brief excerpts yesterday.

The Roman Catholic Church officially repudiated the idea of collective Jewish guilt for Christ’s death in a major document by the Second Vatican Council in 1965.



It was believed to be the first time a pope had made such a detailed dissection and close comparison of various New Testament accounts of Jesus’s condemnation to death by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.

“Now we must ask: Who exactly were Jesus’ accusers?” the pope asks, adding that the gospel of St John simply says it was “the Jews”.

“But John’s use of this expression does not in any way indicate — as the modern reader might suppose — the people of Israel in general, even less is it ‘racist’ in character,” he writes.

“After all John himself was ethnically a Jew, as were Jesus and all his followers. The entire early Christian community was made up of Jews,” he writes.

Benedict says the reference was to the “Temple aristocracy”, who wanted Jesus condemned to death because he had declared himself king of the Jews and had violated Jewish religious law.

He concludes that the “real group of accusers” were the Temple authorities and not all Jews of the time.

‘Major step forward’

Elan Steinberg, vice-president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, welcomed the pope’s words.

“This is a major step forward,” he told Reuters. “This is a personal repudiation of the theological underpinning of centuries of anti-Semitism.

“This pope has categorically stated that the canard that Jews were Christ killers is a gross theological lie and this is most welcome in view of the setbacks that we have seen in the past few years.”

The question of Jewish responsibility for Christ’s death has haunted Christian-Jewish relations for nearly 2,000 years.

Benedict, elected in 2005, has had his share of problems in Christian-Jewish relations.

In 2009, he decided to advance wartime Pope Pius XII on the path towards sainthood by recognising his “heroic virtues”.

Many Jews accuse Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, of having turned a blind eye to the Holocaust. The Vatican says he worked quietly behind the scenes because speaking out would have led to Nazi reprisals against Catholics and Jews in Europe.

Jews responded angrily last year when the pope said in another book that Pius was “one of the great righteous men and that he saved more Jews than anyone else”.

Jews have asked that the process that could lead to making Pius a saint be frozen until after all the Vatican archives from the period are opened and studied.

Earlier in 2009, many Jews and others were outraged when Benedict lifted the excommunication of traditionalist Bishop Richard, who caused an international uproar by denying the full extent of the Holocaust and claiming that no Jews were killed in gas chambers.

Pope to hold peace summit with religious heads

Pope Benedict leads his first mass of the New Year in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican today, January 1, 2011. Benedict will host a summit of world religious leaders in Assisi in October to discuss how they can promote world peace

Pope Benedict, worried over increasing inter-religious violence, will host a summit of world religious leaders in Assisi in October to discuss how they can better promote peace, he announced today.

Benedict told pilgrims and tourists in St Peter’s Square the aim of the meeting would be to “solemnly renew the commitment of believers of every religion to live their own religious faith in the service of the cause for peace”.

He made the announcement hours after a bomb killed at least 17 people in a church in Egypt in the latest attack on Christians in the Middle East and Africa.

The Assisi meeting will take place on the 25th anniversary of a similar encounter hosted by the late Pope John Paul in 1986 in the birthplace of St Francis.



That meeting was attended by Muslim and Jewish leaders and heads of many other religions, including the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

John Paul called on all nations and groups in conflict to silence their weapons during the meeting. Most groups adhered.

A main theme of the 1986 summit was the public repudiation of the concept of violence in the name of God.

“Humanity ... cannot be allowed to become accustomed to discrimination, injustices and religious intolerance, which today strike Christians in a particular way,” Pope Benedict said in his New Year’s Day homily to 10,000 people in St Peter’s Basilica on the day the Church marks its World Day of Peace.

“Once again, I make a pressing appeal (to Christians in troubled areas) not to give in to discouragement and resignation,” he said.

Hours earlier, in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria, a bomb at a Coptic Christian church killed at least 17 people and wounded 43 as worshippers gathered to mark the New Year. The Egyptian Interior Ministry said it may have been the work of a foreign-backed suicide bomber.

The attack in Muslim-majority Egypt was the latest against Christians that has worried Church officials.

On Christmas Day, six people died in attacks on two Christian churches in the northeast of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, and six people were injured by a bomb in a Roman Catholic Church on the island of Jolo in the Philippines.

In a message issued last month for the January 1 peace day, the pope said Christians were the most persecuted religious group in the world today and that it was unacceptable that in some places they had to risk their lives to practise their faith.

In November, 52 hostages and police officers were killed when security forces raided a Baghdad church to free more than 100 Iraqi Catholics captured by al Qaeda-linked gunmen.

The Vatican fears that continuing attacks, combined with severe restrictions on Christians in countries such as Saudi Arabia, are fuelling a Christian exodus from the region.

Pope Speaks to the World's Catholics on Christmas Day

Pope Christmas message urges peace,admonishes China

Pope Benedict XVI waves as he delivers Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) Christmas Day message from the central balcony of Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican December 25, 2010.

Pope Benedict prayed for a rebirth of peace in the Middle East and encouraged Catholics in Iraq and communist China to resist persecution in his Christmas message read amid heightened security today.

In the “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message, he said the Christmas message of peace and hope was always new, surprising and daring and should spur everyone in the peaceful struggle for justice.

Speaking from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica to thousands of people braving the chill and drizzle in the square below, he delivered Christmas greetings in 65 languages, including those spoken in the world’s trouble spots.

“May the light of Christmas shine forth anew in the Land where Jesus was born, and inspire Israelis and Palestinians to strive for a just and peaceful coexistence,” he said.





He hoped Christmas would bring consolation to Christians in Iraq and all the Middle East, where the Vatican fears that violence such as an October attack by militants on a Baghdad church that killed 52 people is fuelling a Christian exodus from the region.

Benedict also directly criticed China, where recently Catholics loyal to the pope were forced to attend a series of events by the state-backed Church which does not recognise his authority, bringing relations with the Vatican to a low point.

He prayed that Christmas would “strengthen the spirit of faith, patience and courage of the faithful of the Church in mainland China” and decried “the limitations imposed on their freedom of religion and conscience...”

Benedict asked God to “grant perseverance to all those Christian communities enduring discrimination and persecution, and inspire political and religious leaders to be committed to full respect for the religious freedom of all”.

HIGH SECURITY AFTER ROME BOMBS

Police were on heightened security in the Vatican and in Rome two days after parcel bombs exploded at the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome. Anarchists claimed responsibility for the attacks, which injured one person at each embassy.

More police than normal were seen along the main street leading from the Tiber River to the Vatican but the atmosphere in the square was festive despite the security and the rain.

In his sermon at last night’s Mass for some 10,000 people inside the basilica, the pope, celebrating the sixth Christmas since his election, prayed for oppressors to be punished.

Vatican guards were more vigilant on Friday night following security breaches for two consecutive years at Christmas Eve masses by the same woman, Susanna Maiolo.

Last year the woman, who has had a history of mental problems, jumped over a barricade as the pope walked up the basilica’s main aisle and managed to pull him to the floor. The year before, she was stopped before she could reach him.

“His guardian angel will protect him and each one of us will be protected,” said tourist Gayle Savino, from New York, as she entered the basilica for the pope midnight mass on Friday night.

“It’s just a blessing to be here on such a wonderful night on Christ’s birthday,” she said.

In his message today, he also called for peace in Somalia, Darfur and Ivory Coast, reconciliation between the two Koreas and respect for human rights in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The group claiming responsibility for the parcel bomb attacks in Rome two days, the Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI), is well known to Italian police and was described in an intelligence report to parliament last year as “the main national terrorist threat of an anarchist-insurrectionist type”.

It gained notoriety in 2003 with a so-called “Santa Claus campaign” against EU institutions which included a parcel bomb sent just before Christmas to Romano Prodi, a former prime minister who at the time was head of the European Commission.

Australia’s first saint: Nun who exposed sexual abuse

Pope Benedict today gave Australia its first saint, a 19th century "whistleblower" nun who activists say should be the patron of victims of sexual abuse by priests because she was punished for exposing it.

At a solemn ceremony in St Peter's Square, the pope canonised Mother Mary MacKillop as well as five other church figures from Poland, Canada, Spain, and Italy who lived in the 15th to 20th centuries.

A boy holds a book showing new Australian Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop as Pope Benedict XVI leads a solemn mass for the canonisation of six new saints in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican October 17, 2010.




Tens of thousands of Australian pilgrims travelled to Rome to attend the mass where the pope read a sainthood decree for MacKillop, one of the few saints in Church history who were excommunicated and later rehabilitated.

A maverick and feisty upstart in the spirit of her young nation, MacKillop, the daughter of Scottish immigrants, founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart in 1867 to help the poor and educate their children.

Independent-minded, she regularly clashed with the church's male hierarchy and the tensions led to her excommunication — the Catholic Church's harshest penalty, which denies the sacraments to a person — in 1871. The order was later lifted.

Documents recently uncovered in Australia showed that MacKillop was banished from the Church in part because her order uncovered a case of sexual abuse of a boy by an Irish priest.

In his homily at the mass, the pope did not mention any of MacKillop's travails with the male Church hierarchy but spoke of her "saintly example of zeal, perseverance and prayer" and the many challenges she faced.

In the wake of the new documents, some activists in the Church have called on the Vatican to declare her the patron saint of those who suffered sexual abuse by priests.

"WHISTLEBLOWER" SAINT

The Rev. James Martin, a prominent Catholic commentator, wrote recently in America, the journal of the Jesuits in the United States, that such a designation would be appropriate for a person he called a "whistleblower" saint.

"Only recently has the Church begun to see whistleblowers as necessary — and holy," wrote the influential commentator. "Victims and victims' families now have someone new to pray for them in their struggles for justice and reconciliation."

The Catholic Church has been rocked by scandal involving the sexual abuse of children by priests over a period of decades. The Pope met with victims of sexual abuse on most of his recent foreign trips, including in Australia in 2008.

The Catholic Church has credited MacKillop for interceding with God in what the Church considers two miracle cures, the latest that of Kathleen Evans, who was cured of lung and brain cancer in 1993 after praying to MacKillop.

Another Australian woman, Veronica Hopson, 72, was inexplicably cured of leukaemia in 1961 after praying to MacKillop.

The order founded by MacKillop, who died in 1909, now has more than 850 members, who run schools, care homes for the aged and do community work in Australia, New Zealand, East Timor, Ireland, Scotland, Peru and Brazil.

More than a century after her death, she remains one of Australia's most revered figures, honoured even by declared atheists such as the country's Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

The pope also canonised two Italian nuns, Giulia Salzano and Battista Camilla da Varano, Spanish nun Candida Maria de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola, Brother Andre Bessette of Canada, and Stanislaw Kazimierczyk of Poland.

London marchers confront pope in biggest protest

Pope Benedict faced the biggest protest of his 17 trips abroad today when more than 10,000 people marched in London attacking his treatment of the abuse scandal in the Church, women priests and homosexuality.

Some of the demonstrators were dressed in costumes, including black leather nuns’ habits and red cardinals’ robes. Posters bore the message: “Pope Go Home.”

Protesters hold banners during an anti-Pope protest near St Mary's University College in Twickenham ahead of the Pope's visit





The pope has faced protests throughout his four-day visit to England and Scotland, often competing for attention with the faithful who are solidly supportive of the trip, only the second by a pope in history.

The loudest and most colourful was yesterday when secularists, atheists, pro-gay groups and human rights campaigners joined forces in a Protest the Pope march from Hyde Park Corner to Downing Street, the prime minister’s residence.

It was the biggest demonstration the pope has faced during the 17 overseas trips in his five-year papacy. Organisers had expected 2,000 people.

Many opposed the Vatican’s stance on abortion, gay rights and resistance to the use of condoms in the fight against HIV-AIDS. “Keep your rosaries off our ovaries” one group chanted, with some wearing condoms on their heads.

Benedict’s apology during a Mass yesterday in which he said paedophile priests had brought “shame and humiliation” failed to appease the protesters.

Placards read: “Abstinence Makes the Church Grow Fondlers” and “Protect the Children, not the Priests”.

“Apologies will not solve the problem,” said Alice Holding, a 40-year-old protester. “He is subject to the law just like everybody else. If I did this (cover up a scandal) I would have to go to jail.”

Others said the taxpayer should not pay for the visit and criticised the pomp and ceremony.

“If Catholics want to heed his teachings that’s their choice, but the rest of us say just go away and leave us alone,” said Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society.

A near capacity 85,000 attended prayers presided over by the pope at Hyde Park on Saturday night. Other public masses have failed to sell-out.

Eleanor Davidson, a university researcher and humanist celebrant in her 50s, said: “Christians are running scared, not just because of the force of secularism but because most people are totally indifferent to religion.”