The visit by Pope Benedict XVI to England and Scotland last week could have been a disaster. Indeed, more than a few involved were worried: about the crowds who would come to see him and the prospect of large-scale demonstrations, and about the often gratuitously antagonistic commentary in much of the British press in the days before he arrived.
Instead, it bordered on the triumphant. Decent crowds, if not those matching the 1982 visit of Pope John Paul II, turned out to see him. Even larger numbers gathered as his popemobile passed by in Edinburgh, London and Birmingham, though a significant percentage were not locals, but tourists, or eastern European immigrants.
Is this reportage or comment? As a journalist many years ago I was taught to give a report not to comment. The mixture here is breathtaking. I would like to challenge the bizarre statement that the crowds on the streets were significantly tourists and Eastern Europeans. No, they were mostly locals, not all of them even Catholic.
#1 TT
I think this report tells one something else. Yes, from over here it seems extremely negative if not hostile. However, it may well reflect the deep trauma in Ireland to the revelations of abuse which have shocked Irish society. It is going to take them, and the church over there, a long time to get over.