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Category - papal visit UK

  • 5 Feb 2011
    UK aid budget raided to pay for Pope's British visit

    A House of Commons Select Committee has asked why £1.85 million was taken from the international aid budget to fund Pope Benedict's 2010 visit to Britain.

  • 17 Oct 2010
    The Pope and alternatives to imperial Christianity

    Many progressive Christians found themselves experiencing profoundly mixed feelings both about Pope Benedict’s visit and about the protests against it, says Simon Barrow. This is perhaps because neither imperial religion nor rejectionist forms of secularism are adequate to the task of remaking public life and public faith.

  • 28 Sep 2010
    Verdict on the papal visit

    Judgments on the recent visit to Britain of Pope Benedict XVI have been coming in thick and fast over the past week or so. Here is my comment for the current issue of the Baptist Times.

  • 21 Sep 2010
    The grand vacuum

    We here in the UK have had blanket coverage of the Pope’s visit, which has apparently been global. On the whole the coverage irritated me, because, as always, the trivial dominated public debate. ‘Pope’s battle to save Christmas’ was a typical headline. ‘Pope: don’t let the PC brigade wreck Christmas’ – screamed Murdoch’s Sun newspaper. These headlines derive from the Pope’s speech at Westminster where he was quoted as saying that “there are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none.”

  • 20 Sep 2010
    Courtesy, conscience and the Pope

    As Pope Benedict's visit to the UK comes to an end, I am left with a sense of sadness. Despite the words of Archbishop Vincent Nichols, attempting to paint the visit as he would perhaps have wished it to be – an endorsement of pluralism and a call to quiet dialogue rather than shrill confrontation, it seems hard to imagine a clearer example of differing cultures failing to understand each other than we have observed over the past few days.

  • 19 Sep 2010
    Pope Benedict brings out both pilgrims and protesters in London

    Some 80,000 people turned out to welcome the Pope in central London yesterday, while 11,000 joined a protest against his state visit.

  • 17 Sep 2010
    Poll finds many Catholics disagree with Church's teachings

    A poll of British Catholics has found that many disagree with conservative Catholic teachings, with almost half believing that gay relationships should be celebrated.

  • 17 Sep 2010
    Pope needs to listen not lecture, says think-tank

    Public gaffes made by Pope Benedict and his retired senior adviser Cardinal Kasper, in aligning atheism with Nazism and describing Britain’s social mix as being ‘like a Third World country’ show that the church needs to re-learn how to communicate by listening not lecturing, says the religion and society think-tank Ekklesia.

  • 17 Sep 2010
    Pope Benedict's UK visit: an emphasis on human need

    Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the UK needs to promote mutual understanding, says Father Shay Cullen, to encourage common commitment to all areas of human need and suffering, and to emphasise world peace, justice and equality.

  • 17 Sep 2010
    Catholic women process before the Pope to seek a reformed priesthood

    Catholics working for women to be ordained in a reformed priesthood are conducting a 'walk of witness' before the Pope in London today.