It's Lent

so it must be time for a bit of Pope bashing.

As far as the British print media are concerned he has comitted two crimes

1 He's the Pope.
2 He's German.

Remember last year? That was the Bishop Williamson debacle. It coincided with the new rose vestments and we don't need to revisit that story, except to say that they are very rose and very beautiful.

The media forget (or don't know or don't want to know,) that Joseph Ratzinger had a cousin the same age as him who had Down's Syndrome. That cousin did not survive the war. So the Pope has direct experience of the Holocaust, as applied to disabled children.

I'd wondered before what it would be like to be a relative of the Pope in the current climate. JPII had no (or very few, a cousin or two?) living relatives. BXVI has a brother, a distinguished musician.

This is the Pope who met with the survivers of abuse in USA and Australia. Hardly the actions of one trying to avoid the situation.

Still, given that 350k people managed to get to the St T of L relics and that all broad sheet newspapers have declining readerships, you do wonder how much sway they really hold. Maybe that explains the descent of the content into ever more lurid speculation.

Anyway, we need not fear that a sharp analysis of facts will cloud the view of susequent articles in newspapers. Makes you wonder the accuracy of much of what you read.

BTW I think the Press Complaints Commission say that the Pope himself has to complain where he is allegedly being defamed. That's one of the reasons that cartoon was fine and dandy.

I hope that when he visits in Sept we will all have a poster to put in our windows.

I welcome the Pope to Britain.

Like the the Holy Week posters.