Gordon Brown invited the Pontiff, but is understood to have made clear that the Government will not cover all the costs.
“We are now in a situation where we don’t know who’s paying for it,” says an official of the Roman Catholic church. “It’s not in the Government Budget and is probably going to cost the Church about £3million to £6million.”
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News from the BHA
Why is the UK Government going to pay any part of the £20 million for the Pope’s visit?
Ratzinger was a key figure in the cover-up for paedophile priests. He was in charge of the Vatican body which drew up the rules to ensure secrecy and to threaten victims and witnesses with excommunication if they made their accusations public: Crimen Sollicitationis.
When the Murphy Commission, investigating paedophile crimes in Catholic-run institutions in the Republic of Ireland, wrote to the Vatican, inquiring about the involvement of the hierarchy in the handling of paedophile cases and the cover-up, it received no reply. Despite the gravity of the crimes and the great feeling of outrage throughout the country, the Vatican ignored the inquiries from the Commission. It only replied weeks later, to say that it does not respond to correspondence unless from a Government. The arrogance of the reply merely added insult to injury.
Ratzinger has also denounced the use of condoms in countries where AIDS is epidemic, thereby condemning people to death from infection and helping to spread the disease.
I would much prefer if my taxes were used to keep him out of the country.