... and when JP2 visited, it was the year of my first communion. My only recollection of that visit was the sheer relief that a classmate and not me got his first communion from the pope (someone told me the mass would last all day. This filled my seven year old self with horror).

However an uncle was very tickled that during his visit the Pope blessed a bunch of protestants who were protesting his visit. However this was Glasgow and the implication was that these protesters were your common or garden religious bigots.

But in 1982 wasn't the Solidarity movement in Poland going strong? The Pope was therefore a strong anti communist symbol and in the cold war that was no bad thing to be. If I think of the pope now, and this is genuinely the lapsed catholic in me, I think of child abuse, the damage done by preaching against condom use in third world countries, a mediaeval attitude to women and a general impression that his worldview belongs somewhere around 1910 rather than 2010.

The world has changed, the Catholic church has not and the pope is one of the main people responsible it seems.

Covering up abuse
Being in the Hitler Youth

That's what a lot of people think of when they think of the Pope. No longer a kindly, white haired old gentleman who kisses tarmac.

Did you read Julie Birchill in the Guardian today? Catholics take up your weapons now.

Not a great start really.

his death causing lies about condoms.

and promptly set light to a copy of the qur'an.

Ratzi was personally in charge of the effort to cover up abuse cases, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from the early 80s until he became Pope. He executed the policy of not sacking or punishing abusive priests, but just moving them on to another parish and paying off the accusers to keep quiet about it. Protection of the church's image was more important than protection of children and prevention of abuse.

Then there's this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/15/vatican-attempted-ordination... - in which attempting to ordain women priests is judged equally as bad abusing children.

And this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7926694.stm - wherein all those involved in performing an abortion on a 9 year old rape victim, who would otherwise have died in childbirth, were promptly excommunicated.

Not forgetting this:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7100299.ece - a previously excommunicated bishop was reinstated into the church 2 days after denying the holocaust in public.

And we haven't even mentioned his stance on homosexuality.

This Pope seems determined to drag his church back into the dark ages, where obedience to dogma and doctrine trumps all other concerns. He's a deeply reactionary fundamentalist bigot who who is making life unnecessarily painful for millions of people all over the world due to his neolithic views.

I don't mind him coming here but I do mind British taxpayers having to pay for it. It's not as if he's short of cash, is he?

appeal is becoming more selective.

The Catholic church's ban on condoms was objectionable enough even in 1982, but not to have altered their stance even after the AIDS epidemic is pretty unbelievable.

I was unfortunate enough to go to a Catholic school, and as a result I haven't been near a church since I was 16.

...I'd hoped this was a religion free zone.

the other acceptable prejudice in Englerland?

... it is my humble opinion that religion in general is just a form of political power exercised mostly for the purpose of the self aggrandisement of practitioners which has maintained its existence because an awful lot of human beings are childish morons terrified of a universe which does not contain themselves.

As I age I get so much less tolerant of the intolerance of religious nutcases that I am in danger of turning into what I hate the most, which is a bigot, albeit of the right on, liberal lefty type. I appreciate that this makes possibly no sense whatsover. However Marcus Brigstocke summed up my feelings with far more skill than I can muster here...

I don't think DFB's question was designed to spark a debate on religion. It was asking why the vocal opposition to the visit of the current pope wasn't there in 1982.

The UK is a more secular place now than in 1982. We have also become more questioning of authority figures. The concepts of "Where is the evidence?" and "What gives you the right?" seem to be permeating life to a far greater degree and, as such, to coin a phrase, the scales have fallen from our eyes as regards the words and deeds of those in high office.

What is, I think, more interesting is to observe the way the Catholic church has suffered in Eire. The Republic was almost a theocracy and the troubles emanating from Rome seem to have shaken the country.

wanting to know what has made the difference bewteen 1982s visit and the current one and how it is being delbt with in the media and by the public, religious or not.

Didn't mean to offend anyone

The Above titled program Radio 4 Thurs morning may give you some insight .

I know Catholics who are not impressed with the present pope . As someone who has theologians in his family all I will say there are plenty who have not been too pleased with Ratz long before his present promotion .

My own position is he may visit should he wish however I have no desire that any toll should fall on the public purse . He is not a head of state in any real meaning of the title .

I will declare an interest as I have ended up on a Radio 5 program when Catholic adoption agencies wished to ignore anti discrimination laws . ( to the best of my knowledge one agency has stopped operating since and a couple have distanced themselves from the church )

After being taken to see the Infallible Goalkeeper from Warsaw in Drogheda as a wee fella in 1979 (or was it 1978?). Hours on a bus to see a tiny speck of something had no idea about. My ma was 'eating the altar rails', in Irish parlance.
Having said that, thanks to her contacts, I won a tidy sum from a well known on-line turf accountant when Benny the ex-Nazi was elected. We sought some insider advice from a former local parish priest ensconced in the Irish College in Rome (well in advance of the conclave) and got him early at 16-1.
Kerrrrchinng upon white smoke.