Hi. Welcome to the blog for my IB English B class at Jur Hronec High School in Bratislava, Slovakia. Below you will find links to other websites and discussion questions. My students are required to comment on one of these postings every month and also respond to each other's comments. Feel free to add your two bits, but be aware that all comments are monitored before being posted.
Friday, September 17, 2010
The british not too keen on a visit by the Pope
So the Pope appears to be currently on an official visit to Britain, but the British are less than enthusiastic. Should tax-payers fund this sort of thing? Is treating the Pope as a political head of state justified? Should the Catholic church move towards ordaining women or allowing priests to marry? Do the British have a right to be upset by the Catholic church’s perceived attempt to get anglican clergy to join its ranks? How does this compare to Slovakia’s reaction to Papal visits? Has the Catholic church’s standing fallen a bit here as well? If not, why not? If so, is it for the same reasons or for others?
Firstly, I would like to say that I’m not a Christian and I don’t want to hurt anybody’s beliefs. But in my opinion, such a visit by the Pope is just a waste of money that could have been used wiser. The United Kingdom had to spend $18 million on papal security and this visit doesn’t solve any problems. British people themselves aren’t too happy about this kind of spending. I think this is due to the fact that most British people are not Roman Catholics. When I compare this papal visit to the visit of John Paul II of Slovakia in 2003, I can see a major difference. People of Slovakia were happy and felt honored by the visit of John Paul II and it is because the overwhelming majority of Slovak people are Roman Catholics. Another reason why the British people are not supporting this visit is because of lack of trust in Roman Catholic Church. There were a lot of scandals involving priests and sexual child-abuse which lead to a drop of credibility of Roman Catholic Church. Nonetheless this visit is in my eyes a waste of money which is so needed in this time of financial instability.
ReplyDeleteMai Nguyen Phuc
RE: Mai Nguyen Phuc
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the point about spending too much money on this visit. The people did not enjoy it, because the majority of them aren't Roman catholics. However the main reason of the visit is not considered the pleasing of the people of Britian, rather than explaining previous priestly children sex abuse scandals. But of course, this could have been done everywhere, even back in Vatican. I also think, that the Pope is aware of the diminishing trust of people in Roman Catholic Church and visited Britian on purpose, trying to restore lost credibility.
I am Christian, but even when trying to be objective, I have to strongly disagree with both of the comments, as well as with the protesting people, from the political, economical and social points of view. From the British side, I find it very inappropriate to protest against the head of the Catholic Church with insulting slogans against Christianity (has over 1 billion followers). Therefore I have the feeling, that several cases of sex abuse overshadow the goodness that millions of priests do all over the world.
ReplyDeleteVatican, is a sovereign theocratic monarchy recognized by all countries in the world. It is a member of many international organizations ,and its duty is to keep relations with other countries. Even Slovakia has an ambassador in Vatican, that is paid over 130 000 euros per year. Simply said ,the Holy See is an internationally recognised nation with significant influence across the world, while the Catholic Church has a billion followers. So just from the political point of view, Uk should at least appreciate this state visit, as all the other countries do.
In addition, the Pope was invited to UK by the English Queen and the British Prime minister. To discuss the public issues, not just the Catholic. It is an unspoken diplomatic rule to pay for the visit of a person that you invite. I found even information that Vatican will pay 7 millions to UK for the visit. I believe that people have to understand that taxes are often spend on things that many don’t need, but that’s simply a part of being a society. Let’s take the example of the Olympic games, although 57 percent of British don’t watch sports at all, and many of them watch just football, that is not properly played at Olympics. These Olympic games are going to cost the tax payers billions.
This visit meant a lot for 9 percent of the British that are active Catholics. It even ended up with the first official apologee for the sex abuse, that’s is a step forward. The Best place do it was UK, because of its multicultural significance. That’s why I think that this visit surely wasn’t a waste of money.