The Pope’s Visit
It is right that the Pope should visit Britain. It is wrong that this should be a State Visit. The status of the Vatican owes more to Italian politics in the days of Mussolini than it does to the real world. Moreover there is no other faith which is also a State, therefore this courtesy conveys a message that the Pope is somehow above other religious leaders, which is the last message in today’s world that any coherent foreign policy should be trying to convey.
The last government got this wrong. The present government is saddled with it. In the end the British people will make the visit an outstanding success, because of their courtesy, some because of their faith and many because of their love of ceremony and spectacle.
Questions will hang in the air, vibrant with the mass devotions. What about the sex abuse? What about condoms in Africa? What about equality among sexes and among those with a different sexual orientation? At the end of the visit there will be a multitude uplifted by Pope Benedict’s blessings. He must in turn go home with a message that faith can remain true when it moves with the times.
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