Join in and Protest the Pope!

Want to join in with others? Check out our Events Diary. Got ideas you want to share – tell us at inquiries@protest-the-pope.org.uk.  Looking for ideas? Here’s what other people have done in the past when Popes have come calling:

• An Australian group (a coalition of Christians, atheists and gay groups came up with:
  • Presenting the Pope with a bill for the costs of the visit ($129,000,000)
  • Mailed out hundreds of letters containing condoms to schools housing the World Youth Day pilgrims
  • Held a kiss-in
  • Held a model (citizen) fashion show
  • Held documentary screenings
• On the Papal visit to the Czech republic (Sept.2009) critics of the Vatican’s ban on artificial means of birth control planned to hand out 10,000 condoms during a papal Mass in Brno on Sept. 27 2009.
• Pope’s visit to Germany 1996 (JPII): about 2,000 boisterous demonstrators tried to drown out the pontiff’s words by yelling and blowing whistles. People dressed as monks, the pope, as condoms.
• In Italy students at La Sapienza University organised protests at a planned visit by Benedict. The first revolved around an anti-clerical meal of bread, pork and wine. The banner at their lunch read: “Knowledge needs neither fathers nor priests”. Benedict cancelled the visit.
• The Rainbow Sash Movement (an American homosexual catholic activist group) planned to throw ashes at the Pope, because “ashes are an ancient and appropriate greeting for a sinner who has caused the Church so much division and pain.” He was also to be greeted with whistles; these were used by the Polish People to show shame for the violation of human rights by the Polish communists.
• Organise a local demonstration
• Spread some joy! Create your own virtual ‘secular festival’ over the 4 days of the visit and publicise your activities on the Protest-the-Pope website. For example, ask to put on some secular films at your local independent cimema or arts centre, such as ‘Collision’, Penn & Teller’s video ‘Bullshit- The Vatican’; ‘Fate or Freewill’; ‘Zeitgeist the Movie’; ‘The Root of All Evil’ etc.
• Print t-shirts with some of Josef Ratzinger’s choice quotes: a selection are offered below.

Pope Quotes

Galileo: Pope Benedict was in charge of Roman Catholic doctrine in 1990 when, as Cardinal Ratzinger, he commented on the 17th-Century Galileo trial. In the speech, he quoted Austrian-born philosopher Paul Feyerabend as saying the Church’s verdict against Galileo had been “rational and just”.

Islam: Reported in the Guardian 16.09.2006: In a speech in his native Germany, the pontiff quoted a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of Muhammad’s teachings as “evil and inhuman,” particularly “his command to spread by the sword the faith.”

AIDS: 17.03.09 the condition was “a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”.

Gay people: In December 2008 Pope Benedict claimed that the existence of gay people is as great a threat to humanity as the destruction of the rainforest.

Transgender people: He also attacked transgender people and claimed that a “blurring” of genders would lead to the extinction of the human race.

Child sexual abuse in America: Benedict said “I acknowledge the pain that the church in America has experienced as a result of the sexual abuse of minors.” As Penn and Teller paraphrase this “My church feels bad because children got abused”, not “Here’s what I’m doing to stop my employees raping your kids.” USA, 2008 visit.