Money for nothing...

As predicted by a lot of secular commentators the final bill for last summer's visit to the UK from the Pope is higher than predicted but not to worry, the difference is being made up by the UK taxpayer; £1.85 million pounds was transferred from the international development budget to pay for the visit. This is money normally ear-marked for aid to "war-torn or fragile states" as part of a commitment to fight global poverty, or in other words roughly a tenth of the value of one Botticelli hanging in the Vatican museum or 1/125th of it's annual income last year.

All this scrounging and sordid wheeler dealing over who pays for this minority freak show is unpleasant enough but placed against the backdrop of the ongoing abuse scandal and the Irish "smoking gun" letter that proves beyond reasonable doubt that the leadership of that organisation was complicit in covering up child abuse it is beyond the pale. Catholics need to examine the morality of their organisation very closely, is it a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul or perhaps denying the people in the picture above in order to maintain the power, opulence and privilege of the person below?