Today sees the first state visit to the United Kingdom and the the first visit by a pope in 28 years. The Pope has been invited by her majesty so it is a state visit, he is also here as the head of the Catholic church. The Holy Father will be here for four days and will be visiting Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Birmingham.
Whilst I may be struggling with my faith I consider myself a progressive Catholic. I believe that faiths and religion can be a part of society but it needs to be part of a progressive society. I do find solace and some peace within the church at times but I do differ and at times I am very strongly against some of the views and teachings of the church. Contraception is one point where I just can’t agree with the Church. It isn’t wrong to use contraception and never will be, I would rather someone use the pill or another form of contraception than bring an unwanted child into the world.
I have been and continue to be very frustrated with the way the church has been dealing with cases of abuse by priests. I really wish they would be very decisive and take more action against these priests. The Holy Father apologising and meeting victims of abuse to understand their suffering is not enough, people need to see action. This all over shadows the good the Catholic Church does do around the world. People will only see the negative, especially when action is either non existent or very slow to occur. Likewise I wish some of the senior clergy would keep their views about this country to themselves.
I do have very mixed views about this state visit by the Holy Father, and like it or not it is a state visit. In times of very savage spending cuts I wonder if the state can afford to pay the twelve million pounds it is paying towards this visit. We are all paying for something that is only going to benefit a few. I can’t remember any other state visit which involved the invited person touring the country and only a brief amount of time with her majesty. As I have previously said the Catholic Church does have views and teachings which are very much out of touch with today’s society. As this is a state visit are these views then reinforced?
As a Catholic I am delighted that the Holy Father is visiting the United Kingdom and I hope that his visit does in a very small part start to heal the gaping wounds left by the abuse scandal. If this is part of the reason for his visit then I would strongly suggest that the Holy Father needs to visit Ireland as a matter of priority. I hope his visit does bring people together and personally I would have liked to have been at one of the masses.
I have so far watched the start of his visit via the BBC news website and was left feeling distinctly underwhelmed by it. Yes there were crowds but not nearly as much as I believe people were anticipating. This may change at the weekend and we may see far bigger crowds in London, I am really not sure though.
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