Petition for the pope

If you’re in the UK*, please consider adding your name to this petition that supports Pope Benedict’s visit to the UK. At the time of writing there are 759 signatures. The National Secular Society has already collected more than 15,000 signatures in their poll that protests the state paying part of the costs of the papal visit (although that is normal for any state visit: the inviting party, in this case the British government, supplies part of the funds).

The Catholic Church having to pay the full cost of the visit would be like you or I being invited to a party and having to pay for the decorations, the band and the food ourselves.

Credit to Fr. John Boyle for writing about this in his blog.

*Or not. The petition doesn’t seem too bothered by the nationalities of the people who sign.

Papal message for Lent 2010

The Vatican released Pope Benedict XVI’s message for Lent of 2010 yesterday. It is dated to October of last year, which seems a bit early, but as in previous year, the Holy Father treats these messages as lessons. He chooses a topic and holds a discourse about it. There is therefore no problem in preparing it in advance.

This year, the pope chose to speak about justice. He poses the questions of what justice is, what its causes are, how the people of Israel saw it and how God’s justice becomes manifest in Christ.

Original text in English
My translation into Dutch