On Saturday, I joined a few (reports vary between ten and over twenty thousand) like-minded people on a stroll through London to let David Cameron know that we aren\u2019t very happy.<\/p>\n
The reason is the Pope\u2019s state visit to the UK. I\u2019d been thinking about joining a protest since I found out about the visit earlier this year, but was undecided this week. It seems that Bristol didn\u2019t have anything organised \u2013 although this isn\u2019t too surprising, since Benedict wasn\u2019t visiting the West Country \u2013 so I\u2019d have to go to London, and it might have been considered rude of me to go off for a day while my sister was supposed to be visiting me! After confirming with her that it was all cool, I sat down to work out if I should go or not.<\/p>\n
The following day, Pope Benedict said that Atheism was to blame for the Nazi atrocities of World War Two. A quick change to my Facebook status for the day – \u201cPete Fullergreen does not like being compared to Adolf Hitler by a man who condones child rape\u201d \u2013 and I booked the tickets. I may only be one person, but the more \u2018one persons\u2019 that marched the less easy it would be for the government to ignore the fact that they are spending our tax money illogically.<\/p>\n
It was an absolutely amazing day. I\u2019ve never been to London completely alone before, I\u2019ve always met someone there to guide me around or gone with someone else. I was a bit nervous about getting lost in the big city, especially since trying to find the start of the march had me walking with an awful lot of people carrying yellow \u2018Pilgrim Packs\u2019. I thought I was probably safer finding the place without help. The march stretched on ahead beyond my sight, although I could see the back (and ended up at the end once). The signs were terrific \u2013 a lot of Father Ted \u201cCareful Now\u201d (which I initially thought was a message about condoms) and \u201cDown With That Sort Of Thing\u201d (which I completely mistook as a vague protest until someone pointed it out to me). There were dozens of statements – \u201cPope\u2019s Homophobia Costs Lives\u201d etc, and a few very specific cases – \u201cMoney for the arts, not old farts\u201d. Several people mentioning the taxpayer-funded nature of the visit, one of my favourites being \u201cI want my \u00a340 back\u201d. I felt exactly the same way. It\u2019s a matter I may be writing to my MP about.<\/p>\n
There were cleverer signs too – \u201cJesus Had Two Daddies\u201d and \u201cAbstinence Makes The Church Grow Fondlers\u201d, as well as the more confrontational \u201cKiss My<\/span> Ring!\u201d An awful lot of people had pope-dress on, one was in black with pink trim addressing the marchers from a nearby building at one point, getting cheers for each benevolent, condescending wave, and one almighty cheer for screaming \u201cFUCK THE POPE!\u201d<\/p>\n The condom brigade, wearing inflated condoms around their heads, bouncing around condom balloons, were shouting at any Catholics they saw walking to Hyde Park for the Mass later that day (they were easy to spot, because of the yellow pilgrim packs) \u201cCondoms For Catholics? Any Catholics need a condom?\u201d<\/p>\n I met a lot of good people that day, and heard some incredible speeches by Richard Dawkins, Peter Tatchell, and many others (too many to remember), including a Catholic bishop from New York. My only regret is that David Cameron was not in Downing Street to hear us outside, and that despite figures being estimated as high as twenty thousand (I\u2019ll ignore the \u2018maybe thirty\u2019 that I\u2019d heard somewhere), no-one is going to apologise to us for spending tax money so unwisely for fear of angering the Pope.<\/p>\n I also regret that no-one challenged the Pope \u2013 when he mentioned how wonderful it was that Britain fought the Nazi evil, he warned the Britain\u2019s secularism was allowing \u2018aggressive atheism\u2019 to take over and blamed the same for leading to the Nazi atrocities. No-one challenged him, they clapped politely. No-one said \u201cI thought it was racism that made them do those horrible things, not atheism?\u201d or \u201cHow come they locked up Jews and homosexuals but not Catholics, if they didn\u2019t like religion?\u201d No-one said \u201cActually, wasn\u2019t Hitler a Catholic who never renounced his faith and wasn\u2019t excommunicated?\u201d and \u201cDidn\u2019t Hitler always oppose state atheism as a mark of Communism?\u201d Indeed, no-one said \u201cDidn\u2019t the Catholic church sign a treaty six years before the war agreeing not to oppose the Nazi party in democratic elections with their own Catholic party, and to support German Nationalism and the German Reich alongside Catholic teachings in exchange for not being drafted into a possible war \u2013 that would have been against the Treaty of Versailles, but still accounted for in this concordat of 1933?\u201d<\/p>\n Nope, no-one was going to present anything other than fawning politeness to the Pope. We let him address members of parliament in Westminster, telling them to be wary of removing religion from law (fun fact: Catholic Canon Law has been introduced in a few countries, banning abortions, divorce and placing warnings on condom packets that they do not protect against HIV) and be wary of secularism marginalising religion \u201cespecially Christianity\u201d. He even said that some of those nasty secularists are trying to ban Christmas, which as far as I am aware has not been true in the many, many years that hack tabloids have been reporting those stories. It\u2019s as bad a story as when \u201cEngland flags are being banned!\u201d appeared all over the media and Facebook during the World Cup \u2013 actually reported alongside hundreds of pictures of people displaying England flags, and underneath newspaper competitions to win England flags and St-George\u2019s-Cross emblazoned goodies. Not really much of a ban.<\/p>\n I was glad that I took part in the march \u2013 it\u2019s my first march for any cause. I\u2019ve never even seen a gay pride march (although based on the recommendation of friends, I\u2019d love to join one). But I am aware that nothing will change. Nothing will actually get done. But at least I got out there and shouted with the rest of them. If everyone who thought \u201cit won\u2019t make a difference, so I won\u2019t bother\u201d had actually come out instead, then maybe it would<\/em> have made a difference. Ironic, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Saturday, I joined a few (reports vary between ten and over twenty thousand) like-minded people on a stroll through London to let David Cameron know that we aren\u2019t very happy. The reason is the Pope\u2019s state visit to the UK. I\u2019d been thinking about joining a protest since I found out about the visit … <\/p>\n