Your comments on the pope's visit

Norman Moss

On the Catholic church. Paul [Norman’s son: BBC radio reporter and presenter] did a good broadcast the other day bringing in some sociologists to talk about the tendency of an organisation to perpetuate and defend itself and prioritising this over its original values. (On holiday in Croatia I once visited a church dedicated to St, Francis of Assisi. I was struck by a sign outside saying ‘No dogs allowed.’)

You're right about the law. When I was in South Africa, the local Archbishop said cases of paedophilia would be dealt with within the church. The Attorney General promptly contradicted him and said cases of paedophilia would definitely be dealt with by the law.

It would take an arrogant man to lecture the Pope on fine moral distinctions, so here goes. He said paedophilia is an illness. It is not. It is a crime. A feeling of paedophilia — a desire to have sex with children — is an illness. The practise of it is a crime. We are not responsible for our feelings; we are responsible for what we do... We all sometimes want to do things we shouldn't do.

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Sonia Hollins

It's been an unexpected and rather disarming few days during the Pope's visit, hasn't it.  My first feeling was of surprise, that somebody would come to England with such obviously good and friendly feelings towards us.

And then he launched into all the subjects of mistrust we felt: not only the shameful behaviour of priests, but even his own connections with the Nazi youth movement (though subsequently deserted)…* And then paid tribute to the RAF, and our opposition to the Nazi regime. Even his obvious pleasure (reciprocated, I think) at meeting with other religious leaders — heartening pictures of the Pope and Rowan Williams — made a welcome change from newspapers usual reports of death and disaster. So there we are, surprisingly heartening — even to a dyed–in–the–wool old agnostic like me. 

* This desertion seems never to be reported, yet he could have been shot for it.

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Jacquie Moon

We have had a very exciting weekend with a visit from the pope; yes indeed we invited him to dinner, only to discover he was made of wax and that he has a mechanical arm for waving! :-)