Why Oxford? Last time I was there, I'm quite sure they had experienced the Enlightenment.

Queen Mary had the Archbishops burnt there.

George  Galloway has come out on the side of the Catholic church..he sees it a British establishment attack on Catholics in this country,.Also a timely diversion for our own more pressing problems.

He has always been a Conservative Catholic.

It made me laugh when they interviewed a cafflick outside Mass and he was disgusted that the chap/chapess responsible had merely been shifted to a new post, considering how the church dealt with abusers!

Brilliant Bliz

I am no fan of the catholic church.. and the pope is nothing to me.. 

.. I just felt a bit let down by the lack of finesse or wit in the politically incorrect pope dissing!   It sounded like something a group of ten yr olds would say when the teacher was out of the room.

For this reason.. I think the civil servant should be told to do one!   I feel misrepresented & let down!  

Oh.. &....  is it just that I live in a different place now, and associate with different people, but I have vague memories of past pope visits being a really really BIG deal... lots of merchandising...  crowds on the streets... flags... etc.

whats going on?

Agreed, but the person who snitched to teacher caused the problem.
I would wonder at their motive!

When Pope John Paul11 visited London my sister and I went there. There were thousands of people on the streets and the mood was so positive and happy with strangers talking to strangers, everyone was so friendly and happy. The police that lined the streets were also friendly and chatted to the waiting crowds before the Pope passed by and when he did there were cheers, waving of flags and overall such a happy atmosphere.


We later went to, I think it was Hyde Park, again thousands there where the Pope held a Mass, this time the atmosphere was different, respectful and quite moving. My Sis and I had a really great day with many laughs but also experienced deeper feelings as Pope Paul was quite charismatic. Personally I've never felt a connection or interest in the new Pope and feel no inclination to be a part of anything in the UK that he might be  part of.

ah... that's actually really interesting Rellow Rose... thank you!

So the new Pope has yet to endear himself to the people?  Pope John Paul11 must have left big boots to fill!

My Italian friend calls him Razi the Nazi.

Yes my husband has just gone off on one about him having been in the Hitler youth!

Interesting post Yellow Rose, nice to hear from such a personal viewpoint.  I truly felt that Pope John Paul II was a man of God.  I am not a Catholic but a fellow Christian.  I too don't feel this new Pope is a man of God.

Re Pope Benedict and the Nazi Youth: just to put the record straight this is copied from the Wikipedia article on him:

Following his 14th birthday in 1941, Ratzinger was conscripted into the Hitler Youth — as membership was required by law for all 14-year old German boys after December 1939 — but was an unenthusiastic member who refused to attend meetings. His father was a enemy of Nazism, believing it conflicted with the Catholic faith. In 1941, one of Ratzinger's cousins, a 14-year-old boy with Down syndrome, was taken away by the Nazi regime and killed during the Aktion T4 campaign of Nazi eugenics. In 1943, while still in seminary, he was drafted into the German anti-aircraft corps as Luftwaffenhelfer. Ratzinger then trained in the German infantry, but a subsequent illness precluded him from the usual rigours of military duty. As the Allied front drew closer to his post in 1945, he deserted back to his family's home in Traunstein after his unit had ceased to exist, just as American troops established their headquarters in the Ratzinger household. As a German soldier, he was put in a POW camp but was released a few months later at the end of the war in the summer of 1945. He reentered the seminary, along with his brother Georg, in November of that year. Following repatriation in 1945, the two brothers entered Saint Michael Seminary in Traunstein.