Pope's UK visit 'could cost £12m'

[4me2]

Pope's UK visit 'could cost £12m'

Page last updated at 14:52 GMT, Monday, 5 July 2010 15:52 UK

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The Pope has been invited to the UK by the Queen

The cost to the taxpayer of the Pope's visit to Britain could rise to £12m - up to £4m higher than the original budget, according to the government.
That bill, for the September trip, does not include policing costs, special representative Lord Patten said.
The main event, a mass to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, has been moved from Coventry airport to a smaller venue outside Birmingham.
The Pope will visit Edinburgh, London and Glasgow during the four-day trip.


Meeting victims

This will be the first official Papal visit to the UK. Pope John Paul II made a purely pastoral visit in 1982, but Pope Benedict XVI's trip will combine both pastoral events and formal state business.
The visit has, however, caused controversy in the UK because of the cost and the scandal surrounding child abuse within the Catholic Church.
At a news conference on Monday, Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols said it should be up to the Vatican to decide whether the Pope should meet some of those who had suffered abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy.
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We will not be looking to the state to support the expressions and the celebration of the Catholic faith

Vincent Nichols Archbishop of Westminster
"It's easy for people to call for some great public gesture, such as meeting victims, but that in itself is a very difficult process for someone who has suffered abuse," he said. "And we must not use those who have suffered abuse for some kind of public agenda.
"So I think these are very difficult issues, but the visit will not be centred on them.
"It will be a unique historical moment in the life of this country."
Lord Patten said previous assessments of non-policing costs had underestimated the "complexity and sophistication" of the visit and the government would have "to make a larger commitment".


Asked about the current financial climate, Lord Patten said: "I think this country has to learn to live within its means... It does not mean that state visits and manifestations of the generosity of the state have to be distant memories."
The Catholic Church had planned to contribute £7m for the pastoral side of the visit, and Archbishop Nichols said so far about £1.1m had been gathered from parish collections and almost £4m from private donors and other sources.
But he said more would be needed, adding: "That will be a problem, but we will not be looking, as it were, to the state to support the expressions and the celebration of the Catholic faith."


Hyde Park

The Pope is travelling to the UK at the invitation of the Queen, and she will meet him at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh on 16 September, the first day of his trip.
He will travel along the city's Princes Street in the Popemobile before heading to Glasgow for a public Mass.
After that, he will move to London and will make a speech to representatives from the worlds of politics, culture and business at Westminster Hall.
Continue reading the main story

• 16 Sept: Reception at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh; Open air Mass, Bellahouston Park, Glasgow
• 17 Sept: Meeting 3,000 children and students, Twickenham; Meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury; Evening prayers at Westminster Abbey
• 18 Sept: Mass at Westminster Cathedral; Prayer vigil, Hyde Park
• 19 Sept: Celebration of the beatification of Cardinal John Newman, Cofton Park, Birmingham

An evening of prayer will also be held in London's Hyde Park, along with a public appearance on the Mall.
The beatification of Cardinal Newman, who died in 1890, will take place on 19 September at Cofton Park on the outskirts of Birmingham.
The Mass - which paves the way for the English cardinal to be officially named a saint - was originally planned to take place at a much larger venue at Coventry airport.
The BBC's religious affairs correspondent Robert Piggott said the church had denied the change was for reasons of cost.
Archbishop Nichols said he doubted the airport would have been able to cope with the sort of crowds that turned out for the last Papal visit in 1982.
"Getting 200,000 people in an airport in 2010 is quite different to the task in 1982," he said.
"As we all know, there is far more care taken about safety, about security, about health provision.
"But the reason is not that. The reason is because Cofton Park is very close to the place where Cardinal Newman lived during his summer months - it's a park around which he walked.
"It puts the ceremony of his beatification right in the context of his life, and I think it's that resonance, above all else, that we were looking for."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10509127.stm

[4me2]

Why the fuck should we be paying for this ?

Surely as head of an International Paedophile organisation he should be refused entry ?

[ruggie_uk]

This winds me up. Like 4me2 says, why should we pay anything, never mind £12m.. £12 fooking million to bring a widow twanky lookalike over for tea and biscuits. They better be some rare ass hobnobs. All this and we are raising VAT and cutting public services due to lack of funds. The catholic church isn't short of a few bob, if he wants extra security, let them pay for it. Send the fooker a bill, oh and not forgetting to inflate the expenses claims, I'm sure we can manage that.

[TwoPlAnKs]

He's a big fucking Nazi paedophile concealing nobody and can frankly fuck off. His religion isn't even major in the UK, we have a law on the books that prevents a Catholic from becoming a monarch and he is still respected as a foreign head of state when the country he is head of is about the size of my fucking knob.

It annoys me because I have a few close friends who are either actual Catholics or ethnic Catholics (atheists who are proud of their past due to Irish/Glaswegian roots) and they are all lovely and as far as I know they hardly rape any children. This man coming to the UK is not pleasing them in any way at all but it is drawing a shitload of negative attention to them and giving good Catholics a further bad name. If there's one thing the Catholic church's PR machine needs to do it's just shut up and lie low, all actions up to this point are just making them look worse.

All these obvious reasons why this is a bad idea are there before you even consider that it's all made up anyway and that we are supposed to have separation of church and state. £12,000,000 could fund a lot of science and other things that aren't bollocks.

[4me2]

The 12 million doesn't even include the Police costs.

That bill, for the September trip, does not include policing costs, special representative Lord Patten said.

[flik]

So what does that £12 million get spent on then. How many rent boys is the fucker going to get through in 4 days ?

[TwoPlAnKs]

The 12 million doesn't even include the Police costs.

I did see that in the article and forgot to comment on it. It really makes me wonder what it is going on, given the nature of him I'd have thought those would have been the most significant part of the cost. I don't know much about how people view him in England but I know when he goes to Glasgow he's going to need significant security to avoid getting attacked by Rangers fans.

I think his recent peadophile antics will make him much more of a general target to people like me who have no beef with the catholic church when it's not being ridiculously corrupt and powerful. I won't attack him because violence is silly but somebody might.

[flumperino]

Cancel it. That's £12m off of the deficit. Job done.

I should be chancellor.

[burner1]

I bet if they made it a pay event, they wouldn't even raise the funds. Who wants to pay good money to see some decrepit old crinkly paedo - That wouldn't even work for Gary Glitter.. at least he once had some credence.

[matieboy]

just do the visits by webcam on skype, should save a few quid,
and if he wants to come then let him pay himself,
i dont go abroad and get them to pay for me,

[Neo\nsc]

Tell him to stay at home the ped0 cnut its bad enough having gary glitter living up the road from my mum's lol

[Mobileman]

12 Million quid my arse, im blaming the pen pushers in goverment that price all this shite up

Flight 50k first class for him and his possy
Hotel 50K including complimentary breakfast !!
Security planning and bodyguards cant cost more than 4 million quid so where is the fooking rest going
Million quid handling fee, i will do the job for 6 million, cheap at half the price

[blaggard]

The Catholic Church is filthy rich and I mean filthy FILTHY RICH, let them fucking pay for it!

[ruggie_uk]

Security planning and bodyguards cant cost more than 4 million quid so where is the fooking rest going

If you paid some hard as nails fuckers £1,000 a day each, you could surround him with 100 of them for 4 days for £400,000. And I think I'm being extreme at that. I really want to knw who works this stuff out.

[TwoPlAnKs]

The fact that we can all call the man a peadophile and get nobody on here standing up for him shows how insignificant he is in the UK, it just can't be worth £12m to the population to have him here.

[burner1]

The fact that we can all call the man a peadophile and get nobody on here standing up for him shows how insignificant he is in the UK, it just can't be worth £12m to the population to have him here.

I think religion is a lot more diverse these days and the 'traditional' Catholic element is becoming a minority now so I guess some people will feel miffed over this one.

Religion shoud be a private and personal thing imo.. each to their own but it just doesn't work for me. On paper, following the writings in a book on how to lead a decent and moral life is great but I think all religion has one big flaw that makes it destined for failure regardless of it's slant.. that flaw is humanity.

[blaggard]

This is not a Theological thread, the Catholic Church is a filthy rich organisation which should be paying for its own PR.
They don't give a fuck for suffering kids or countries, just so long as they get their Tribute!

[Greyfox]

The Catholic Church is filthy rich and I mean filthy FILTHY RICH, let them fucking pay for it!

Exactly what I was going to say. The amount of money they pay in compensation to molested children 12 million is a drop in the ocean!