Pop(e)star Benedict

Making the headlines in the UK are the currently planned admission fees for the services with Pope Benedict XVI during his state visit in mid-september.

The attendees are intended to be charged for the open air show on the 16th of september in Glasgow Bellahouston a sum of € 23, and for an evening prayer with the Pope at London’s Hyde Park, people will have to purchase tickets for twelve euros.

Tickets for the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890), in the 19th September in Birmingham could beat the equivalent of € 30 per person to book.

All participants in the worship services receive a pilgrim package with ID, prayer book, CD, ticket and a first-aid kit.

The amounts are reported to be paid in advance by the respective parishes for the participants from their district.

The parishes also have to buy all of them in advance and sell them all to people, or the unsold tickets will be a loss for the parish itself.

Benedict was to be given an arrest warrant soon he entered the UK on a private prosecution in relation to his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the catholic church,

The Government has moved to prevent the possibility of an arrest warrant being issued against the Pope during his state visit this autumn.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100722/tuk-pope-to-be-protected-from-arrest-on-45dbed5.html

Also from this site:

German archbishop Robert Zollitsch admits that the Roman Catholic Church consciously covered up cases of sexual abuse for decades

Irish Catholic church paid child abuse victim to keep quiet

Abbot offered bribe to abuse victims

Abuse scandal-riddled Ratzinger must resign

Rotting from the inside out: sex abuse and the Catholic Church

The Horrors of Roman Brutality

Geoffrey Robertson, the human rights lawyer, is also involved in the case,

“Geoffrey Robertson claims that Pope Benedict XVI was guilty of protecting paedophiles because the church swore the victims to secrecy and moved perpetrators to other positions where they had access to children while knowing the perpetrators were likely to reoffend. This, Robertson believes, constitutes the crime of assisting underage sex and when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, the present pope approved the above policy up to November 2002. In Robertson’s opinion, the Vatican is not a state and the pope is not immune to legal action.”

They need money to pay the victims of sexual abuse, so there will probably be a church flea market next – “body of christ for half price” “50% off all body of christ“.