PAPALPALOOZA 08: Pope Benedict XVI's Visit Down Under Has Aussie Catholics Singing "Celibate Good Times, Come On!"
All across the country, Catholics are clutching their rosary beads with excitement at the news Head Dude of the Roman Catholic Church hit our golden soil yesterday, arriving at Richmond RAAF Base in the afternoon, where he was greeted with a friendly "Welcome to Oz, fuckface!" by Prime Minister Keven Rudd (well, he probably didn't use those exact words, but who knows for sure anymore now that the PM's potty-mouth has been uncovered?).
The spiritual leader of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics was met by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Sydney Archbishop George Pell as he began his nine-day trip, his first here since becoming pontiff in 2005.
Pope Benedict expressed "great joy" about the visit, saying World Youth Day events had the ability to open frontiers between nations and bring cultures together.
In an official statement to the "great southern land of the Holy Spirit" he wrote that all Australians were in his thoughts.
As are the lyrics of Icehouse too, it would seem. What next, B-dog? Getting a billion people to kneel during Sunday Mass at Randwick Racecourse before theatrically using the line "On my knees, help me Jesus, tell me what can I do... electric blue" in your prayer? Stating same sex relationships are "Nothing Too Serious" and thus the entire notion of gay weddings denigrate the institution of marriage? I can't think of any more appalling Icehouse-based wordplay, but you catch my drift.
I look forward to seeing what the coming week of Catholic-mayhem brings. The fact that there's a popedownunder Twitter account, meaning we can get succinct updates regarding exactly what's happening during this Papalpalooza, is bloody brilliant.
Frankly, entries like this -
Breaking news: a kitten called 'Bella' has been brought into the Kenthurst Study Centre to help Pope Benedict feel at home
- are so amazingly stupid that it seems fairly obvious to me that the Pope is going to feature on this little ol' blog quite a bit this week.
Bring it on.
Kool & The Gang-inspired part of the post title courtesy of one-man wit machine, Swords & Sandals creator, and all round Sydney heartthrob Oliver Shirley's Facebook status update. I salute you, sir.
Our apologies to the families of World Youth Day visitors
I felt it appropriate that I should write by way of explanation for the
actions of many Australians visitors will encounter as they arrive and
explore Sydney whilst here for their celebrations.
It is not that Australians do not want to see young people coming here -
we welcome them and as our government repeatedly says they bring money
into the pockets of our businesses here - lots of approvals from that
perspective.
The biggest issues many Aussies see are in regards the treatment of our
children which many see as human rights issues and as so many Aussies
tend to do they get pretty cranky when they see that their children are
not afforded safety and justice - particularly in a sexual sense.
You will most likely come away with a distorted view of Australians
brought about as you encounter the depth of the anger this country feels
on this issue.
The anger and sometimes rage that you may encounter is not genuinely
directed at you or other young people visiting us; it is justifiable
anger and rage which should be more appropriately be directed at the
Catholic church and in particular our Government and our politicians no
matter their party or religion.
It does get crazy at times here with people so outraged and so affected
that they in turn vent their anger on whoever comes within reach or
whoever represents the entity or cause of their outrage. Of course we
Aussies understand that some of us regularly die and have our lives
destroyed due to the stresses impacts we encounter, its not even because
us Aussies don't understand it all. We do. We really do and that is why
we want to apologise to you and explain that it is just that our
politicians just like the church has forgotten that we do it for our
kids, instead they have feted a church who has itself acknowledged the
breadth of the problem of its priests freely sexually abusing our
children and our politicians have remained silent.
It would indeed be bold of you to speak out about those ills you
encountered,even to become outraged and expect to receive justice and if
appropriate to obtain compensation - we wish you luck.
For me I would be keeping my young ones home and away from such a
volatile region of the world while Australians are in such a rage about
the sexual abuses they have experienced right through to the day to day
impacts the Catholic church has on their lives - its not really a safe
place to send young people to unless they are aware of the reality of
the situation here.
Sentiments are so high here and the coverup so deeply entrenched that
there is little preparation towards providing assistance and safety nets
for those pilgrims who will encounter verbal and physical abuses and
those unfortunates who will encounter sexual abuse here at the hands of
someone so outraged that they themselves have lost the plot. They (both
parties) unfortunately just become statistics and are added to the list
of thrown-away human lives by both Church and government.
JohnB
http://www.tfyqa.biz/