The troubling authoritarianism of the No-Popers

The saintly Brendan O'Neill has fired another delicious salvo against the Nope Pope brigade -- this time landing wtih surgical precision on the deeply illiberal mindset which lurks within it. O'Neill, Monitor readers will not need reminding, is editor of the humanist magazine Spiked, and while disagreeing with the Pope, is deeply troubled by the totalitarian impulses of many of the secularists -- not least Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society who called on the Pope to "get out" of Britain. Says O'Neill:

It was extraordinary stuff. Consider what is being said: that because the pope’s views run counter to the British state’s views, he has to leave the country. Because he does not support gay rights or women’s equality, he must go home. Partly this is a creepy echo of the old prejudice about Catholics not being sufficiently loyal to the state - but more fundamentally, it speaks to a serious warping of the liberal humanist outlook. If you had to distil the profound, historic tradition of liberal humanism into one principle, it would surely be that no one should be persecuted for having views that are the opposite of the state’s or of mainstream political thought. Yet here was a gathering of so-called humanists clamouring for the expulsion of the pope on the basis that he does not accept ‘British values’, as the QC Geoffrey Robertson described them on Saturday.

 But no snip can do it justice. Enjoy the whole.

Why were the protesters so white?

Ed West at the Telegraph thinks the call by some secularists at the Protest the Pope rally for the Pope to "get out of our country" sounded a little -- he doesn't say this, but -- BNPish, given the overwhelmingly white, middle-class nature of the Nope Pope brigade.

[D] espite the most prominent theme of Saturday’s protest being the Church’s condom policy in Africa, there was not a single African in the march as far as I could see. There were a handful of black British people and a handful of Asian women, but the crowd was 99 per cent white and very middle-class looking.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Some of the noblest protests, from Prague 68 to Tehran 09, have been dominated by the middle-class; neither does their racial composition make any difference to their message – either they’re right or wrong. But it is strange that no Africans came to protest Vatican policy in Africa.

In contrast thousands of Africans came to welcome the pope in Hyde Park, Ugandans, Nigerians, Zimbabweans, Malawians and many others, as well as thousands of Filipinos, Indians, Iraqis, Poles, Germans, and Irish. The masses gathered there largely represented the children of immigrants brought in to work while Europeans enjoyed the labours of their ancestors. Undoubtedly they want to be part of European civilisation and our way of life – and it’s represented best by the man in the white Mercedes-Benz.

'Protest the Pope' defeated by its own extremism

.....says William Oddie at the Catholic Herald.

In the event, that headlong confrontation of values, between the Pope’s transparent humility and goodness, and the vicious hatred and arrogance of Protest the Pope, could only end in one way: with the utter failure of the atheist campaign to gain the hearts and minds of the British people – a people who, in the end, will always choose decency over gross incivility. In the end, British fair-mindedness was the Holy Father’s secret weapon. Protest the Pope was just not cricket.

Before the visit, I was interviewed for the American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS): are you aware, I was asked, “of any papal visit which has been preceded by a campaign of such fury and loathing?” Well, no. But the fact is that Protest the Pope and its allies peaked too soon, and they went too far – much, much too far. They discredited themselves and underestimated their enemy. In the event, it was just no contest.

Catholic Voices at 'bearpit' debate with Protest the Pope

Last Wednesday saw Catholic Voices patron Fr Christopher Jamison ([pictured) and its coordinator Austen Ivereigh go up against AC Grayling and Peter Tatchell to oppose the motion, 'The papal visit should not be a state visit'. The debate, held by the Protest the Pope coalition at Conway Hall, and chaired by Polly Toynbee is reported by the Catholic Herald here and by the New Humanist here. Fr Christopher's speech is here. Excellent photos here.

'Protect the Pope' wanted to know why CV accepted Polly Toynbee as chair. Ivereigh replied: "We knew Polly Toynbee would be scupulously fair in her chairing — and she was, making sure that pro-Pope people had their voices heard at least as much as the PtP lot. The humanists hosted the debate, and were therefore entitled to pick their own chair. As it happened, Toynbee and the other humanists were gentle and reasonable — trying, in vain, to get their people to listen and give Catholic Voices the courtesy of a hearing."


In fact, Toynbee at one point uttered the immortal line: "Could I please appeal to my fellow rationalists to let the Catholics speak?"