RFI
September 18, 2010
http://www.english.rfi.fr/europe/20100918-protesters-prepare-hold-demonstate-against-popes-visit
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| Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron speaks to Pope Benedict XVI during a meeting at Archbishop's House, near Westminster Cathedral in central London, 18 September |
Pope Benedict XVI is set to hold an open-air vigil in London’s Hyde Park on Saturday as protesters prepare to demonstrate against the pontiff’s historic state visit. The 83-year-old began the third day of his trip with a meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
A coalition of around 2,000 protesters are expected to gather near Hyde Park this afternoon, before marching through central London to Cameron’s Downing Street office.
The group of demonstrators will contain victims of abuse by Catholic priests, atheists, pro-abortionists, those calling for the ordination of woman priests and those angry at the cost of the state visit, which is being paid for by taxpayers’ money.
“We’ll be using the march and the rally as an opportunity to raise awareness of the issues that make us condemn the Pope’s state visit,” Andrew Copson, from the Protest The Pope coalition, told RFI.
“We don’t know exactly how many people will join us, we know that the visit has been very unpopular in Britain, according to polls and surveys in the last few weeks. The weather’s good, so maybe we’ll hope for a few thousand today.”
British police continued to question six suspects arrested by counter-terrorism officers yesterday. It emerged that the men are street cleaners, with some reports indicating that they are Algerian.
The Vatican insisted that it did not attach “much importance to these arrests”.
Benedict is only the second Pope to visit Britain after John Paul II in 1982, following Britain’s split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534.
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