Pope Warns Children Over Celebrity Culture

Fame and fortune do not bring happiness, the Pope told thousands of schoolchildren in a warning about Britain’s celebrity culture.

The Pope said he hoped there were “future saints of the 21st century” among the audience at an event celebrating Roman Catholic education in Twickenham.

He encouraged them to develop skills and admitted that money is useful, but told the pupils that pursuing worldly success alone would not give meaning to their lives.

The pontiff, speaking on the second day of his historic state visit to Britain, also said to the schoolchildren that they should not “narrow” their education to exclude ethics, while acknowledging that religion too must not ignore science.

Benedict arrived at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham, after 10am, having spent his first night in England at the Wimbledon residence of his ambassador, the Nuncio.

Dozens of well-wishers lined the narrow suburban street along with protestors, mainly individuals rather than official groups, bearing placards criticising the Vatican’s stance on homosexuality and its attitude to the clergy abuse scandal.

In the courtyard his motorcade was met by dozens of children in school uniform, all of whom had been searched by police officers, who waved flags and cheered. The Pope raised his arms to greet them, kissing one boy who was held aloft, and was introduced to dignitaries including Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, and Vince Cable, the Business Secretary and local MP.

After speaking to guests in the Catholic college’s chapel Benedict travelled by Popemobile around a running track where 4,000 children from church schools around the country along with religious groups and politicians were waiting for him, in what was billed as the world’s biggest school assembly.

At an event compered by the Blue Peter presenter, Andy Akinwolere, two choirs on a stage sang hymns including a verse of...........

“People were trying to get us interested in papal coffee mugs and foam rubber miters,” said the Rev. Leslie Ivers, director of the New York Archdiocese’s office for the papal visit. “These are things that we don’t think are in good taste.”

Thanks for blowing your own case out of the water.

According to your article, “people” were trying to get the archdiocese to sell foam miters. We don’t know who these people were, or whether they were even Catholic. What is clear is that they had no connection with the Holy Father, and that the representative of the archdiocese said the foam miters were not in good taste. How you can wring papal hypocrisy out of that is a question for the ages.

“Why would(n’t) a Catholic want to own a foam miter?” The archdiocese responds by saying “we don’t think they’re in good taste.”

What’s your problem with that? Any properly catechized Catholic is going to agree that they are in bad taste. Again, no indication of papal hypocrisy.

“And a t-shirt is?”

That depends upon what is written on the t-shirt, and where it is worn. T-shirts per se are not intrinsically offensive, as is a foam miter. Again, no indication of papal hypocrisy.

“Why not a miter? What about a miter with the Pope’s picture on it?”

I don’t believe that you are incapable of seeing the problem with that.

“And what’s wrong with calling it a “Pope hat” anyway? Some Catholics use slang to refer to the Pope as “papa” - why not slang to refer to his traditional headgear?”

Slang? My word, you’re not even trying to get things right, are you? “Papa” is Latin for “father.” If anything, it is more formal than “pope.”

“I think it’s safe to assume that the availability of foam miters at any papal appearance is purely “unofficial” at best.”

And yet you allege that their existence demonstrates the hypocrisy of the Holy Father when he speaks of the culture of celebrity. Where’s the consistency in that?

“I think it’s also safe to assume that vendors anticipate a demand for them, since in 1995 they tried to get the archdiocese’s blessing (pun intended) to sell them.”

They tried and failed to get the archdiocese’s permission. Further, anticipating a demand is not the same thing as finding a demand, and neither does selling nonsense to young skulls full of mush demonstrate papal approval. No indication of papal hypocrisy anywhere, yet.

“Would an archdiocese sue competing vendors for selling “unauthorized” souvenirs from the Pope’s visit?”

I doubt it, but some people would say that unauthorized souvenirs show that the pope is hypocritical.

“I get the impression that the more traditionalist Catholics among you would consider buying or wearing a foam miter to be a disrespectful act.”

Only the most poorly catechized Catholics would not.

“It certainly diverts revenue away from archdiocesan efforts to pay for the Pope’s visit via “official” souvenirs. Would you consider that disrespectful as well?”

So, the “hypocrisy” attack having failed, you’re switching to some variant of the “greed” attack?

“I know that a foam miter on a parishioner is less tacky than a rainbow umbrella hat on a priest.”

1. When one is that deep into bad taste, I don’t think minor differences in degree of offensiveness are meaningful. And are we to think that, although the rest of the world agrees that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, your tastes are a matter of knowledge, which is to say a matter of fact?

2. Neither a foam miter nor a rainbow-umbrella hat fall under the definition of “Catholicism.” They are outward manifestations of Satan’s attacks on the Church, nothing more.

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