The Pope cometh down under; Aussies warned not to upset the delicate church

According to the Sydney Morning Herald Pope Benedict's visit and the pilgrimage of 225,000 during World Youth Day will set Aussie taxpayers back a staggering 139 million dollars. The Vatican will contribute a mere 10 million. Hallelujah to that.

Pope Benedict in his short reign has already declared excessive wealth a new mortal sin; does the Vatican's immense wealth not make it a sinner? If so, how about opening your vaults and paying for your own holiday?

The Catholic Church is disgustingly rich so surely subsidising a rich church is deemed unethical?

$49 million will pay for government services while a whopping $43-million will befall the Australian Jockey Club, giving the church access to Randwick Racecourse during WYD. The Oz Jockey Club will be laughing, or should I say galloping all the way to the bank.

I mean really, is all this necessary? In the year 2008, a Catholic pilgrimage in central Sydney? The disruption to inner city dwellers and commuters is expected to `annoy' them for a full week with authorities advising people to leave their cars at home, work from home or even take the week off work. All in the name of not upsetting the delicate Church. Filling already busy streets with happy clappers is not everyone's cup of tea. Couldn't they just find a big paddock somewhere, a stretch of the Stuart Highway, some patch of unused desert? How about spreading yourselves out amongst the many of thousands of churches dotted about the country? Personally I've always felt they'd make a decent setting for an S&M party what with the premises being adorned by images of torture, whips, corpses and blood spattered crosses which, while we're on the topic, is that not a sin?

`You shall not carve idols for yourselves and bow down and worship them.'

Heaven forbid if any non-pilgrims adorn themselves in any way deemed offensive to their precious counterparts. Oh no, but it's okay for you guys to waltz around my city with ghastly offensive hedonistic symbols reminding me in your eyes I am sinning, for various reasons I might add.

NSW Police have been granted special powers under the new `annoyance' laws to prevent people `annoying' Catholic pilgrims during the WYD march. Anti Pope protestors and the handing out of badges, stickers and t-shirts have been outlined in the new flimsy laws. A T-shirt with a slogan deemed offensive could be liable to arrest and a fine of up to $5,500AUD. An online retailer is already advertising T-shirts with the slogan: `5,500 dollars, a small price to pay for annoying Catholics'. Or how about the double edged `The Pope touched me Down Under.'

Most Aussies are all for freedom of speech and many of us `non-religious peeps don't see too much wrong with a bunch of people from all over the world coming together for song, dance, to celebrate their beliefs and share their joy. Sadly however, when we're told we're not allowed to celebrate our beliefs or simply carry on as we would any other day of the year, this cuts to be fabric of our otherwise fairly tolerant and liberal minded society. How ironic that part of the World Youth Day pilgrimage route on Saturday follows the gay and lesbian parade route. Oxford Street is the epicenter of gay culture in inner city Sydney especially on weekends with cafes, restaurants, pubs and clubs teeming with gays and their friends. No doubt the new annoyance laws could find reason to be `annoyed' any day of the week on Oxford Street although apparently it's okay to be yourself any other time, just not when the Pope and his pilgrims are in town.

Surely the church's bigamist and misogynist stance on homosexuality, contraception and AIDS is deserved of opposition on the day? There's the gay debate, the abortion debate, the pedophile debate, all of which have incredible credible stand alone merits and the rights of such groups to exercise their rights should not simply be swept aside. It's a disgrace to ones civil liberties not to mention a kick in the guts for victims.

Should peaceful protestors be staring down the barrel of hefty fines and arrest? We're talking peaceful, progressive, fluffy protests. Activists plan to hand out condoms not grenades. Condoms save lives.

There's speculation Pope number XVI will apologise on behalf of the Catholic Church to victims of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of Catholic Clergy as he did earlier this year in the US- some see it as a nice sentiment, others the same dribbling rhetoric come to be expected of the Catholic Church. Surely 139 million bucks would be better spent compensating victims?

`The delicate genius' is a Seinfeld coined phrase and with all this controversy surrounding the `annoyance' laws I have this niggling George Castansa voice in the back of my mind, `Delicate Catholic Church, we must not upset the delicate church.'

Richard Dawkins in his book The God Delusion sums it up perfectly, `A widespread assumption, in which nearly everybody in our society accepts - the non-religious included- is that religious faith is especially vulnerable to offence and should be protected by an abnormally thick wall of respect, in a different class from the respect that any human being should pay to any other.'

According to the 2006 Australian census, Catholic's make up one quarter of the Australian population. So let them pay to see their beloved Bishop of Rome. A fifth of Aussies have `no religion,' be them Atheist, indifferent, Agnostic or otherwise. How about we start lobbying to have `our' heads of whatever make an appearance down under? I'd love a free David Icke seminar, how about a Trekkie convention? Plenty of people worship Madonna; why not send her down under?

Given that a decent slab of the population regularly attend dance parties and night clubs how about Aussie tax payers foot the bill for UK's electronic band Faithless to tour down under because for some, `God is a DJ.'