Anti-Pope activists can give out condoms in Sydney

Another quick update on the Pope's visit to Australia – last month we told how draconian new laws had been introduced for the duration of the Papal visit which would prevent protests and stop demonstrators from handing out condoms to pilgrims attending World Youth Day. Well, following an appeal, a New South Wales court has overturned the law and anti-Catholic protesters can now dish out prophylactics to their hearts content.

Sydney brothels offer 10% off for Catholic pilgrims

A few weeks ago on this blog we told how market researchers were predicting a rise in custom at Sydney's brothels and strip clubs as Catholic pilgrims (and the Pope) descended on Sydney for World Youth Day.

Well, with that event beginning today one of our Australian readers has sent us an update – according to Melbourne newspaper The Age, Sydney's brothels have grabbed this commercial opportunity with both hands and offered Catholic pilgrims 10 per cent off whichever services they desire.

It was in The Age's "In brief" section, which unfortunately does not seem to make it on to the paper's website, but our reader kindly included the full story in his email:

"BROTHELS 10% off for pilgrims

IT'S proving difficult to prevent com­mercialisation of World Youth Day. Nearby brothels are reportedly offering 10% discounts to pilgrims on presentation of their WYD accreditation, while the Doncaster Hotel in Kensington, as the self-proclaimed "closest pub to the Pope", is running a "Pappy hour" with schooners available for $3.30.

They can hardly be blamed for cashing in, if the Catholic Church is not above commercialising the occasion. WYD merchandise includes coins, T-shirts, caps, stamps and minted memorabilia, all licensed by the church. Pilgrims are being encouraged to buy clothes lest people think them mere tourists. A catalogue exhorts them to purchase rosary beads with cruci­fixes made from West Australian iron ore and stainless steel WYD08 dog tags."

[Thanks Nigel]

Stay tuned folks....

Prepare for the television event of the year. On 5 October Pope Benedict XVI will kick off a six-day round-the-clock Bible reading marathon – and the whole thing will be transmitted live on Italian TV.

The Pope will start things off in St Peter's by reading the first 33 chapters of Genesis, before 12,000 volunteers keep it going in a Rome church. The Pope's segment will be beamed live on the top channel of Italy's state-funded network RAI, with the rest of the epic going out on the network's satellite education channel.

Wondering why the Pope's stopping at chapter 33 of Genesis, Guardian journalist John Hooper did a cheeky bit of research and looked up chapter 34, which begins:

"And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her."

Could this be a hint that Christians aren't so proud of their holy book, in its entirity, after all?

The Church of England's going t'dogs...

Thought I'd offer a quick update on the Church of England's ongoing crisis – it turns out the Vatican's not very happy about it's decision to allow female bishops to be ordained, as it "signifies a breaking away from the apostolic tradition maintained by all of the churches since the first millennium, and is a further obstacle for reconciliation between the Catholic church and the Church of England."

My first thought was "didn't they split up almost 500 years ago" but apparently the Vatican says attempts at reconciliation had "up until now born fruit", that is up until the Church of England made moves to stop being explicitly sexist and homophobic.

Meanwhile, I learnt from the same article that there is such a thing as a "Catholic wing of the Church of England" and one of their number, the Rev Prebendary David Houlding, isn't very happy with the Archbishop of Canterbury:

"Rowan Williams is going to Lambeth with his own church in chaos. First gay weddings, and now women bishops. They [the archbishops of Canterbury and York] showed a lack of leadership. They made two very clear pleas to synod, to have some safeguards for us, and nobody listened. Williams will have no authority. The last thing he wanted was an ecclesiological row. I feel very sorry for him."

"First gay weddings, and now women bishops" – the Church of England's going t'dogs I tell you. Whatever next? Stay tuned for more news of this gripping saga...

Fancy a confession, mate?

We all know you can find a wide range of counterfeit goods and bogus services on the streets of a big city, but how about fake religious officiants? Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reports that authorities in the Holy See tried a man for impersonating a Catholic priest.

Apparently the man was trying to hear confessions in St Peter's Basilica, as Vatican Judge Gianluigi Marrone explained:

"Some time ago I had to deal with an unusual case - a fake priest. He was caught by surprise in the basilica while he was trying to take his place in a confessional. He was wearing clerical garb, but the expert eye of our (basilica) personnel didn't need much to sense something strange in his behaviour."

That's as much information as there is, so we can only speculate as to whether the imposter proved to be as good as the real thing.

Civil liberties to be reduced for Pope's visit to Sydney

A few weeks ago we reported on how this month's Catholic World Youth Day (Papal visit included) is set to cause a rise in visits to Sydney's brothels and strip clubs, but now we've learned of a far less amusing knock-on effect courtesy of Reuters (via our friend Christina Martin).

Fearing a bout of protests and anti-Catholic messages, the Australian authorities have given Sydney police extra powers to clamp down on anyone "causing annoyance or inconvenience to participants in World Youth Day". One group is planning on handing out condoms to those attending the Papal extravaganza (Reuters say it's the Catholic Church's Woodstock, so naturally we need to start calling it "Popestock"), but under the new powers they could face arrest and a fine of 5,000 Australian dollars.

Civil liberties campaigners are unhappy, including Anna Katzmann of the New South Wales Bar Association, who said the measures are "repugnant for two reasons. First of all the government has by-passed the normal parliamentary scrutiny...and secondly they are an unreasonable interference with people's freedom of speech and movement."

Good luck to the protesters, we say, especially with handing out those condoms. If the story about increased demand for prostitutes holds true, they might just come in handy...

Pope's visit to Australia will drive up trips to brothels

Here's an unfortunate knock-on effect if ever there was one – market research analysts IBIS World predict that the Pope's July visit to Sydney for Catholic World Youth Day will lead to an increase in business for the city's brothels, strip clubs and prostitutes.

225,000 pilgrims and clergy are expected at the event, which runs from 15-20 July, but Ed Butler of IBIS World was keen to stress that it is unlikely to be the Catholics, or that matter the Pope himself, caught with their trousers down:

"Any major event will drive tourism, which is closely related to the sex industry … and World Youth Day will also bring out a certain number of non-religious people."

Because, obviously, it's only those pesky "non-religious people" (who Fox Australia clarify as "tourists, support staff and media") who do things like visiting strip clubs and prostitutes. With this in mind, I thought I'd have a look what World Youth Day is all about. For a start it's a five-day event, so the Catholic Church is clearly not concerned by any kind of trade description legislation, and it "brings together young people from around the globe to celebrate and learn about their faith on a more regular basis."

Two things come to mind here. Firstly, of those 225,000 attendees, how many of the young people will be there entirely on the back of their own initiative and religious zeal, and how many will have been sent there by their parents? Secondly, this being a massive Catholic youth event, how much of it will consist of telling the young pilgrims (who are away from home in Australia's biggest city for 5 days) to steer clear of having sex?

If you follow my argument, you may agree that it might not just be those depraved "non-religious people" setting out on pilgrimages to Sydney's brothels and strip clubs next month...

[Thanks to Christina for the link]

Christians feels misrepresented by media over Embryology Bill

I've been off for a couple of weeks and I was pleased to see that while I was away religious attempts to restrict scientific progress and abortion rights failed as the controversial elements of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill made it safely through the Commons.

Now a story from a Christian news source tells me that the Christian Broadcasting Council is concerned that the Christian viewpoint was misrepresented in the media during the debate over the matter.

Chairman Olave Snelling feels "Christians and pro-life campaigners are portrayed in the media as people who do not care about the cure of diseases, research and the plight of unwanted pregnancy" and that "the public and MPs were not adequately informed about the issues and the consequences of certain parts of the Bill, despite the best efforts of many Christian and pro-life groups who worked tirelessly with MPs."

Which isn't how I remember this debate. Think back to Easter weekend, when clergy from across the Christian spectrum were given ample (excessive) column inches and airtime when they chose to use their most holy day to "inform" the public on the perceived dangers of the bill. They were using their top guys (bishops, cardinals etc), so presumably this amounted to their "best efforts". Anyone seeking the news had little choice but to hear and read these views, but unfortunately for them their "best efforts" comprised some of the most stunningly ill-informed and ignorant opinions heard in recent public debate. If this sounds strong, let us recap for a moment:

Cardinal Keith O'Brien (Scotland's top Catholic): "This bill represents a monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life." Other descriptions of the bill included "monstrous", "grotesque", "hideous" and of "Frankenstein proportions".

Dr Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham (Anglican): "Gender-bending was so last century; we now do species bending".

Add to this failed attempts at debate by representatives of anti-abortion groups (see the BHA's Andrew Copson's demolition of Paul Tulley from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children live on BBC News) and it's difficult to argue that Christians weren't given a fair chance to make their points. They even had a free vote in Parliament play with. But ultimately they were wrong, and fortunately reason won the day.

Royal girlfriend converts from Catholicism to marry a royal

Yesterday I wrote about the debate at the RSA held to mark the launch of a new group, British Muslims for Secular Democracy. During this debate the journalist Yasmin Alibhai Brown made the point that Britain is not yet a proper, religiously neutral secular state.

And what better way to illustrate the absurd, established state we live in than by turning to our distinguished royal family? You see, according to the Sun (yes I'm linking to the Sun) the girlfriend of someone from the royal family has made, in their words, a "dramatic" 11th hour conversion from Catholicism to the Church of England in order to ensure that her beau doesn't lose his vital position as 11th in line to the throne.

As any self-respecting secularist should know, the 1701 Act of Settlement declared that any royals who married Catholics would have their names stricken from the line of succession, and that piece of legislation still stands to this day.

However, anyone concerned that the girlfriend may have received an unfriendly nudge in the right direction from senior royals shouldn't worry too much – Buckingham Palace insists it was all her own decision and that "She was welcomed into the Church of England some time ago."

[Names withheld from this article due to irrelevance]

Is George Bush about to follow Blair into Catholicism?

Could converting to Catholicism be set to join hitting the after-dinner speaking circuit on the list of things for world leaders to do after they leave office? According to the Italian weekly Panorama (via Reuters' Faith World blog), George W Bush is poised to follow the Reverend Tony's lead and covert to the Catholic faith once he leaves the White House next January.

Before anyone gets too carried away, let us clarify that this story appears spurious at best. Reuters' blogger Philip Pullella is entirely unconvinced, saying that "the odds of this happening appear as good as those of the proverbial snowball in hell."

Panorama's evidence for this claim amounts to the fact that Methodist Bush prayed with Pope Benedict during his recent visit to the US, that Bush's brother Jeb converted to join his Mexican wife as a Catholic, and that several of the President's close advisers are Catholic.

And that's pretty much it. Catholic blogger Father John Duhlsdorf provides his own English translation and dismisses the story with the introduction "Wanna read an article typical of much of the Italian press?", before concluding that "A lot of this article is pure fantasy. "

So, to sum up, don't expect to see George W confessing in a booth adjacent to Tony's any time soon.

Who needs a priest when you can just confess online?

I'm immensely grateful to an anonymous commenter on an old post about the Catholic Church's seven new deadly sins, who has alerted me to a website where sinners can gather to confess online.

I Confess Myself markets itself as a place where you can "Let it all off your chest in a risk-free environment", and is basically a blog with 7 posts covering Gluttony, Sloth, Lust, Envy, Greed, Wrath and Pride. All you need to do is leave a comment on the relevant post to get those pesky sins off your chest.

A quick look through the confessions shows they range from the mundane – "I ate a McDonald's meal and now I feel sick" – to the downright callous – "I was so jealous of my friend being skinny that I kept pushing her to eat more until she got pudgy and then I made fun of her until she got an eating disorder."

Okay, so the website hasn't really taken off yet and, if you ask me, it's lacking some good old fire and brimstone qualities, but this didn't stop me thinking – imagine if the Catholic Church, with its 2,000 years of history, ended up being replaced by a blog.

Questionable ways to defuse a sectarian atmosphere...

Given that Celtic vs Rangers is a football derby with a long history of sectarian rivalry, you'd think the players at the two Glasgow giants might see it as wise to rise above it all and stay out of matters relating to the respective merits of Protestantism and Catholicism.

But if you're Celtic's Polish goalkeeper Artur Boruc, it seems the appropriate way to celebrate keeping the championship race alive with a 3-2 victory over Rangers is to remove your jersey to reveal a t-shirt bearing a photo of the late Pope John Paul II alongside the slogan "God Bless the Pope".

Boruc's a pious chap - nicknamed "Holy Goalie" by Celtic fans - and this isn't the first time he's fanned the flames of sectarianism at the Old Firm derby. In 2006 he received a police caution for breach of the peace for allegedly making "obscene gestures and blessings" to the Rangers fans, and at the next derby he was abused by Rangers supporters after crossing himself before the match.

It doesn't seem Boruc's latest antics have landed him in too much trouble with manager Gordon Strachan who told reporters "He's not a bad lad, to be fair (the Pope). If it was 'God bless Myra Hindley', I might have a problem."

Modern society to blame for Catholic priests' sex abuses

Apologies for the lack of activity on this blog this week. Just thought I'd make a quick observation regarding the Pope's visit to the US. Much has been written of his non-apology for the sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests over there (not to mention elsewhere in the world).

The closest he came to apologising was to say that the scandal had been "sometimes very badly handled" by the Catholic Church, before going on to lay the wider blame on "the degrading manifestations and the crude manipulation of sexuality so prevalent today."

You see, it's all to do with "the values underpinning society". So nothing at all to do with the fact that the Catholic Church denies its clergy the right to explore their sexuality as consenting adults, then?

Boom time for tat as New York prepares for Papal visit

Readers of our print magazine will have seen Christina Martin's collection of religious tat - the Argod Catalogue - in the current issue, and in keeping with this theme we were delighted to hear that New York is currently experiencing an explosion in the sale of Catholic tat as it prepares for next week's visit of Pope Benedict XVI.

The New York Daily News reports that tat-mongers are cashing in on the Pope's visit by peddling high-class items like Papal bookmarks, coffee mugs, baseball caps, t-shirts and (our favourite) Benedict XVI cologne.

Catholic gift shop owner Neil Fusco took time off from counting his sacred cash to tell reporters that"Our Holy Father is coming, everyone is excited and every body wants a piece of him." And that wont be a problem at Neil's store – he's set up a cardboard cut-out of Benedict outside his shop so customers can stop off to have and have their picture taken with him. We're not sure if he's charging them for this, but we'd be disappointed in his tat-instincts if we found out that he isn't.

Tony Blair calls for more faith

So, last night our former Prime Minister made a speech declaring the aims of his new Faith Foundation, the reasons he thinks religion can solve the world's problems, and why all the religions are capable of getting along by uniting around "common values".

You can read all about Tony's big moment in the Westminster Cathedral spotlight through these reports on the Guardian and Independent. It's also worth checking out the Times' political sketch: "This was an important speech for Mr Blair, really his coming out speech as a Christian. The politician who did not do God no longer exists. In his place is a man who does God and does God big."

What particularly struck me was one of the reasons Blair gave for why politicians might not want to publicly express their religious zeal – because people might think they are "somehow messianically trying to co-opt God to bestow a divine legitimacy on your politics."

So Tony's clearly saying that he didn't seek "divine legitimacy" for his major decisions. This from the man who told Michael Parkinson that God will judge him over Iraq.

AC Grayling on the Catholic assault on secularism

Here's regular New Humanist contributor AC Grayling responding to the Catholic Church's, or more specifically Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor's, ongoing attack on "aggressive secularism" and familiar claim that "what binds the British people together is their Judaeo-Christian heritage".

As usual with Comment is Free articles on this subject, Grayling's piece has received many comments (175 at the time of writing). It's always worth a flick through if you're seeking amusement.

Enjoy.

Local council in shock challenge to Catholic dogma

In an unprecedented victory for rationalism, Catholic priests in the north east of England will from today be required to read out a disclaimer prior to delivering the holy sacrament of Communion.

The Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead have issued the new regulations as a concession to secularists concerned by allegations that Creationism has been taught to students at Emmanuel City Technology College, a Gateshead academy school run by Peter Vardy’s Emmanuel Schools Foundation.

In passing byelaw 08/04 (section 01), the borough council has made it mandatory for Catholic priests to forewarn their congregations that transubstantiation – the idea that at communion the bread and wine become the literal body and blood of Christ – remains unsupported by solid empirical evidence.

Beginning with tonight’s evening masses, priests will be legally obliged to read out the disclaimer – the exact wording of which has been provided by the council – which reads as follows:

“Congregants should be aware of the gaps and/or problems in the Catholic theory of transubstantiation, including, but not limited to, the Protestant notion that the bread and wine are merely symbolic, the opinions of other religions on the life of Christ, and the lack of conclusive scientific evidence available to support this theory.”

Explaining the borough’s decision, Councilor Burt Blaydon (Con., Windynook), said: “The council feel it is important that borough residents realise that the Catholic version of Christianity is only a theory and not written in stone. This is not an attempt to cause offence, but equally we shouldn’t offend those members of the congregation who hold alternative views on the nature of bread and wine.”

Catholics lose lead in religious league table

It's been widely reported that for the first time in its history the Catholic Church has lost it's position as the religion with the most adherents worldwide.

While for accuracy's sake it's worth pointing out that these (Vatican-produced) figures don't seem to distinguish between different branches of Islam (while making the distinction between Protestantism, Catholicism etc), they reveal that 19.2% of the world's population are Muslim compared to 17.4% Catholic.

Now, I'm not sure this story in itself is that surprising given the regions of the world where various religions are stronger and so on, but what really struck me were the comments by Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, editor of 'the Vatican's new statistics yearbook'. First let's point out that this doesn't seem to be a joke – this yearbook actually does exist, like a kind of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack for Catholicism. And secondly, let's have a look at what Monsignor Formenti had to say: "For the first time in history we are no longer at the top: the Muslims have overtaken us."

My first instinct here was to say "well, it's not a competition", but then I realised it kind of is, what with the race to convert heathens and so on. But I do like how he sounded like a football manager who'd just been overtaken at the top of the league. And like any good gaffer (it's a shame the Pope didn't make these comments), Formenti's backing the Church of Rome to bounce back in the population race, describing Africa as a "grand resource" for Catholicism. Wise words, as if they keep telling their adherents there not to use contraception, they might just get back in the game.

Aaronovitch and Toynbee on religion and the Embryology Bill

The big news from our perspective over the Easter weekend has been the repeated calls from pulpits across the land to give MPs a free vote on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

We're becoming all too used to these attacks on science from religious leaders, who twist the facts and use ridiculous hyperbole to try and convince their congregations that cutting-edge scientific research that could eventually save millions of lives is somehow morally abhorrent. Take Scottish Cardinal Keith O'Brien, for example, who describes research involving human-animal hybrid embryos as "monstrous", "grotesque", "hideous" and of "Frankenstein proportions".

I can find no better way to dismiss this than to quote Polly Toynbee in today's Guardian:

"Whatever the religious claims, the human fertilisation and embryology bill is not in some special moral category of its own. It allows scientists to use the outer empty shell of animal eggs, for lack of spare human eggs, in which to implant purely human DNA for 14 days, to derive stem cell lines which model a particular disease to be studied in the lab. The UK pioneers stem-cell research into Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, motor neurone disease and muscular dystrophy, as well as cancer, diabetes, strokes and infertility. Contrary to the cardinals' wilfully ignorant campaign of misinformation, no animal hybrid, no monstrous Island of Doctor Moreau chimeras loom. Forget spurious "thin end of the wedge" arguments: no further step can be taken without another act of parliament."

Not that Easter Sunday congregations were informed of any of this. Anyone listening to the likes of O'Brien who didn't have any other knowledge of embryology might have come away thinking the law could lead to the creation of a race of half-human/half-cow devil-worshipping entities ready to bring about the destruction of God's people. According to O'Brien, the idea that embryo research might lead to the curing of diseases is merely an "excuse" used by scientists to ensure they get the right to pursue their sinister activities. And it wasn't just Catholics getting in on the act. The Anglican Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright, managed these words of wisdom from his pulpit: "Gender-bending was so last century; we now do species bending".

It's this sensationalist, misleading and distasteful tone that has irked David Aaronovitch, who in today's Times presents a fantastic case for why we must stand up to religious attempts to interfere in science and government legislation:

"Like most of the Godless (or Godfree), I have no desire to proselytise for atheism or to persuade people out of religions that may offer them comfort and companionship. But there is a growing shrillness and unpleasantness - yes, an unscrupulousness - about the way that some of the top faithful increasingly choose to conduct their arguments. This needs to be combated because, for all their talk of conscience, what Dr Wright and Cardinal O'Brien really seem to want is to tell the rest of us how to live."

Here's hoping the Government stands firm, rejects calls for a free vote and ensures the Embryology Bill passes because, as Toynbee points out "trying to make things better in the human here and now trumps imposing needless suffering on the sick for perverse doctrinal reasons."

Update: Well, scratch what I said above. Gordon Brown has just announced that he will allow Labour MPs a free vote on "controversial" elements of the bill. Which means that pressure from the Catholic Church has led to a situation where a piece of legislation vital to medical research might be rejected by a 21st century British parliament. We can only hope the religious lobby isn't strong enough to make this happen, but if you read Toynbee's Guardian piece, we can't be too sure of that. I suppose we can look forward to more political pronouncements in Sunday sermons, as religious leaders will clearly have realised they're on to something.

Ranting bishop claims Christianity under attack from "gay conspiracy"

One of Scotland's leading Roman Catholics believes that the "gay lobby" has mounted a "huge and well-orchestrated conspiracy" to destroy Christianity.

The Rt Rev Joseph Devine, Bishop of Motherwell was delivering a lecture at a Glasgow Catholic school on Tuesday but reports suggest this quickly turned into something closer to a paranoid rant as he warned his audience that the gay rights movements had crept up on them unawares: "I want to ask you if you are able to see the giant conspiracy that's taking place before our eyes, even if we didn't see it at the time. I take it you're beginning to see that there is a huge and well-orchestrated conspiracy taking place, which the Catholic community missed."

Perhaps most shocking were his comments regarding Holocaust Memorial Day, suggesting that the presence of gay organisations at commemorations amounts to a clever publicity stunt: "The homosexual lobby has been extremely effective in aligning itself with minority groups. It is ever-present at the service each year for the Holocaust memorial, as if to create for themselves the image of a group of people under persecution. We neglect the gay movement at our peril."

Not that the bishop stopped at there. He also expressed his dismay at the recognition actor Ian McKellen receives for his gay rights work: "In this New Year's honours list, I saw actor Ian McKellen being honoured for his work on behalf of homosexuals, when a century ago Oscar Wilde was locked up and put in jail. It's a very small group of people, but very active and organised – and extremely indulgent. The opposition know exactly what they're doing. We don't."

It's not quite clear whether he was suggesting that McKellen should be locked up for being gay, but the implication certainly seems to be that jail would be preferable to a New Year's honour.

As if all this wasn't enough, Bishop Devine finished off by vowing to fight the "forces of secularism" and bizarrely comparing himself to that notorious star of Mad Max and director of The Passion of the Christ: "Like Mel Gibson, who said, 'I'm going to pick a fight', so am I."