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Wednesday 15 September 2010

Pope's visit to the UK: Sinéad O'Connor and "Protest the Pope"

Ahead of Pope's visit to the UK, Sky News today reminded of the incident of 1992 when Sinéad O'Connor ripped into pieces a copy of a photograph of then Pope John Paul II while appearing on NBC's Saturday Night Live programme.
Wikipedia: On 3 October 1992, O'Connor appeared on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest. She was singing an a cappella version of Bob Marley's "War", which she intended as a protest over the sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, by changing the lyric "racism" to "child abuse." She then presented a photo of Pope John Paul II to the camera while singing the word "evil", after which she tore the photo into pieces, said "Fight the real enemy," and threw the pieces towards the camera.



There will be "Protest the Pope" march and rally in London this coming Saturday, along with other actions as part of the campaign against the State Visit of Pope Ratzinger to the UK which starts tomorrow. Campaigners protest Vatican's cover up of child abuse cases, as well as its stance on other human rights issues:
- opposing the distribution of condoms and so increasing large families in poor countries and the spread of AIDS.
- promoting segregated education.
- denying abortion to even the most vulnerable women.
- opposing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights, including universal decriminalisation of homosexuality.
- failing to address the many cases of abuse of children within its own organisation.
- rehabilitating holocaust deniers and appeasers like bishop Richard Williamson and the war-time Pope, Pius XII.

2 comments:

artmika said...

Things getting funny. BBC reports that Pope's adviser pulled out of the visit calling the UK a "Third World country" marked by "a new and aggressive atheism"

artmika said...

'Pope Art', Soho, London