Evangelical Christians and secularists came to Twickenham yesterday to protest against the pope, but ended up bitterly criticising each other
ON QUIET, leafy Waldegrave Road, the picture of English middle-class suburbia, a small crowd of little more than 100 strong had gathered, marshalled without complaint behind security barricades erected by the large numbers of policemen milling about.
Some were without invitations and tickets for the papal Mass in St Mary’s University before nearly 4,000 pupils and teachers; some were protesting about the Catholic Church’s failure on child sex abuse; others about its stand on homosexuality, contraception and a myriad of other causes.
On the street, the singing of the students gathered from all over England and Wales could be clearly heard, while a small group of nuns standing at the gates, without the necessary papers to get in, sang Star of the Seaendlessly.
Inside, Pope Benedict, who had emerged from his chauffeur-driven car to the screams of joy of many of the children attending, urged young Catholics, ironically perhaps, not to put their faith in the fickleness of the modern celebrity culture.
Long-time gay campaigner Peter Tatchell said he had come to reject Pope Benedict’s “harsh and intolerant teaching” and to support Catholics who oppose the pope’s judgment that “no woman has the spiritual capacity” to be a priest.
Criticising the church for not opening Vatican files held on priest child-abusers, Mr Tatchell went on to reject the church’s “dogmatic position” on the use of condoms, even by those in Africa who are infected with the HIV/Aids virus.
Taking up the microphone, Josh Kutchinsky of the London Humanist Group said atheists and secularists “are making some progress” because the pope felt obliged to criticise “aggressive secularists” in his speech in Edinburgh on Thursday, “not the nice secularists”.
The decision to offer the pope the honour of a state visit was “atrocious”, said Mr Kutchinsky to light applause from a few: “The truth is that the pope is the Prince of Dark and we are here defending the Enlightenment.”
On the other side of the street, an Evangelical preacher, who had come with some fellows, urged Catholics and others to abandon idolatry and turn to the Bible. Protesters unhappy about the pope’s presence called on Benedict “to resign, resign, and resign”. TV cameras, though mostly ones from cable religious channels rather than the mainstream, milled about. So too a few newspaper photographers but little else. Tatchell finished a TV interview and quickly left.
By now, the Evangelists and the protesters were getting on each other’s nerves. One American preacher infuriated them by his declaration that homosexuality was wrong: “If you were born to be a homosexual, you need to be born again.” Incredibly angry, one of the humanist group took up the microphone, shouting: “Shut up, shut up, shut up.”
The preacher looked down at him: “You don’t have to be angry. You need to repent, you need to repent.” The religious TV cameras seized every image.
Others on both sides became involved. Police began to move into position but the confrontation fizzled out with people on both sides not directly involved in the exchanges looking embarrassed that they had happened at all.
Leaving the university grounds after Mass, Dublin-born St John of God’s Brother John Martin, now based in Darlington, was delighted with the morning: “It was so intimate, so relaxed, it was lovely.” Liberal Democrat MP Vince Cable, who serves in the cabinet as business secretary, left on his own, looking just a little harried, with a pocket umbrella in hand. A small group applauded. He is, after all, the local MP.