Bravo
Anne McElvoy. Her piece has gems like this:
Those who “call on the Pope to quit” combine absurdity with ignorance. It is not like asking the head of Channel 4 or Coca-Cola to step aside.
The point of the Pope is precisely that he doesn't quit. He's an inheritor of the tradition on which the Church is founded, not a temporal appointment to be toppled by a phone-in vote.
Mr Tatchell thinks the Pope is “out of step with British Catholics” and I dare says he is on any number of fronts.
The point of Rome isn't to be “in step” with public opinion in any one place or time. It is to try to transcend it, and to defend some beliefs which can be a guide to life across eras and fashions. In short, it does precisely what the rest of the modern world doesn't do.
