Â
CATHOLICS today are being asked to dig especially deep into their pockets to help meet a shortfall of more than £3m pounds in funding for Pope Ratzinger’s visit to the UK later this year.
The Church has asked them to put at least £1-m in today’s collection – largely to pay for three big open air masses at which the Pope will preside.
Because this is a state visit by Ratzinger, the bulk of the cost is being borne by the UK government – a fact that has enraged millions of Brits, many of whom would gladly chuck cash into a pot to keep the rancid old tart away from our shores.
The Papal visit will cost £15m, not including extra policing and security.
The Church’s share of the cost is £7-m – but slightly less than half of it has been raised.
The Church says that the three open-air masses could attract up to 400,000 people in total.
One will form the high point of the Pope’s visit – the beatification of gay Cardinal John Henry Newman at Coventry Airport on September 19.
Secularist groups have criticised the use of taxpayers’ money to fund the visit of a religious leader.
In March the National Secular Society (NSS) pressure group delivered a 28,000-name petition to Downing Street objecting to any state funding of what they say is a religious activity.
Terry Sanderson, President of the NSS, said the benefits of the state visit did not justify its cost.
State visits are to do with improving trade relations or having some sort of diplomatic contact that will be useful in the future for improving trade – there’s nothing like this in this visit.
The government said it would cost £15m, without the cost of security. But of course, as we’ve seen with state visits to other countries, it’s the security that’s the big ticket.
There’s no benefit to the taxpayer from this unless they happen to be Catholic. They should be paying the whole thing.
Unsurprisingly, the Catholic Church in England and Wales has a different view.
Monsignor Andrew Summersgill, who is co-ordinating the visit, said:
Firstly, the Pope is coming as a religious leader, but he is also coming at the request of the Queen as a head of state, so all the usual concerns apply. Secondly, one in 10 people in this country is Catholic.
He added that taxes were often spent on things that not everyone agrees with, but that this was “part of being a society”.
Meanwhile, we learn that God TV is deep in finanicial doo-doo.
Earlier this month, according to this report, it sent out an appeal to supporters:
God TV faces one of the biggest financial challenges the ministry has experienced. We need $1.5 million by 23 May and another $2.5 million in the bank by 31 May. This means a total of $4 million, to enable us to continue broadcasting from Jerusalem to the nations!
Please pray and give your best gift to help overcome this challenge, so that together we can fulfill our calling to take the Gospel into millions of homes worldwide.
This ministry has a history of miracles – and we know we are in God’s hands – but right now your GOD TV is in urgent need and we are personally appealing to the entire GOD TV Family to help.
Note: Please give generously to help both appeals. Send cheques and postal orders made payable to the Rev B Duke – who has been chosen by the Almighty to administer the funds – to PO Box 234, Brighton BN1 4XD.
But, because of the urgency of the situation, cash is obviously preferred. Send me an e-mail, and I will give you details of how transfer funds to a bank account set up for this very purpose in Nigeria. I assure you that your money will be VERY well spent.
God bless you all.
Hat tip: Barriejohn and Alan
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
May 23rd, 2010 at 12:41 pm
How can they need funds if Jesus saves?
May 23rd, 2010 at 12:59 pm
The Nigerian bank account got me!
Why does god TV need prayers AND donations, shouldn’t prayer get them everything they need!?
May 23rd, 2010 at 1:17 pm
I went to my friends today rattling my money box asking them for some money for the Pope. They could not stop laughing.
Perhaps when he arrives in this country I can ask him for some money, I have’nt had a holiday for years.
May 23rd, 2010 at 1:28 pm
The fact that while the hard strapped tax payers are being warned that their taxes will be savagely raised and services cut, around £20 million is being spent on this visit is a scandal. Why should atheists, agnostics, hindus, bhuddhists, assorted hardworking dumbfucks who don’t know what is being done to them be forced to fund this charade. If the Queen invited him and wants him then let her pay for him. In fact, I suspect he is as welcome to her as a dog turd on her shoe.
As for tax payers, of all stripes, being forced to fund the beatification of Newman, that is a strictly RC, en famille (if these celibate (?), unmarried priests have such a thing Roman Catholic wish. The Pope is not wanted; his record of deceit in protecting paedo priests has been explicitly and categorically exposed; he is only able to move outside the Vatican because of the phony protection given to his Nazi predecessor in the 1930s by the fascist Mussolini.
Call a halt. Either the RCs pay or he doesn’t come here. There has to be a halt called to this outrage of welcoming and funding the arrival of one of the most destructive human beings to human welfare on the planet: think contraception, AIDS, abortion, gay rights, protecting paedo’s and the rest.
May 23rd, 2010 at 1:40 pm
The 400,000 people attending these shindigs, if they paid a tenner each, could easily make up the shortfall. No doubt they’ll each get a papal indulgence allowing them to sin, sin and sin again. Not bad for a tenner.
May 23rd, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Nice to see the God TV televangelist business model failing.
They can’t alter it in any way to make it pay like a normal business either. Any bail-out monies donated by their fuckwit audience will only prolong the inevitable. Let’s hope it is a gas gangrenous painfully slow decline where religiots keep coughing-up whilst the company directors grab what little cash is left in the business and run. When the courts ban them from directorships they’ll be exposed for the charlatan, professional xians they always were.
You can wish them well, or not, here:
http://www.god.tv/contact
May 23rd, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Rev Duke will the money be going on a private ministry jet for you to travel the world and preach the word?
May 23rd, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Watch this – it’s almost beyond belief!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs0OvGKr8cM
May 23rd, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Fucking hell!
God TV aren’t talking much about their imaginary friend.
They’re doing a telethon like BBC Children in Need! It’s shameless.
Canned applause for each reported donation.
May 23rd, 2010 at 2:14 pm
@Barriejohn that reminds me of this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMfX3uA15RM
May 23rd, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Alan, too bloody right, mate. And Rentboy.com will be providing my personal luggage-lifters and masseurs.
May 23rd, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Alan: Do you remember when Clive James first introduced us to the wonders of Benny Hinn’s ministry, many years ago now? How we all laughed! Sadly, knowing what I do now about the cunt, I no longer see the joke. There are umpteen YouTube videos of his stupid “Let The Bodies Hit The Floor” nonsense, but this really takes the biscuit. Watching it, you wonder why his children were not taken away from him, but it is interesting to note that his wife is now divorcing him!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4NSS6GMKFI
May 23rd, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Hey Barrie, do you do cut price indulgences? I can assure you that they are a great selling point. I suggest, if I may, that you operate them on the Papal model pre Martin Luther. Here is how it works, with some adjustments:
1. You, as the Head Rev (Pope) appoint lots of followers (priests). No problem there as for a start most of the contributers on this site will help.
2. They are given permission to grant indulgences at a price. We keep ten percent and the rest to you.
3. These indulgences, again following the pre Luther model, were sold from stalls, en route to shrines to view a piece of the genuine cross and there must have been hundreds of crosses. Our shrines could be various “sacret places” in Brighton or other places and the “sacret objects” might be a signed copy of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Or perhaps Dannel C Dennets nail clippings or Sam Harris hair. Some imagination is needed.
4. The big money maker, and do handle this with rather more subtedly than the pre Luther Pope, is that very wealthy men – let women be for now – pay zillions of pounds and they are not only forgiven their past sins but also anything they do in the future. Hard to imagine a more attractive proposition.
5. Go to it Barry. You are the man for this. Out very own new faith.
May 23rd, 2010 at 4:26 pm
There is a critique of Hinn here, though from a Christian perspective:
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbear.....eneral.htm
[Other examples of Hinn's false healing powers: An elderly Hinn follower was turned away from one entrance to ARGO Stadium in Sacramento, CA because she had not given enough money to enter there. Later, on the stage she was "slain in the Spirit," and while she was lying on the floor a huge man, likewise "slain," landed on top of her, breaking her leg. In 1993 in Basel, Switzerland, Hinn prophesied over a man with cancer that he had many years to live. He died two days later. In Nairobi, Kenya early in May 2000, four patients released from a hospital to attend Hinn's "Miracle Crusade" died while waiting for prayer. (Source: 9/00, TBC.)]
May 23rd, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Barry: How about we get together and inaugurate The Barry and Barrie Divine Wellbeing Crusades? All attendees guaranted to lose pounds immediately and effortlessly. Money-back guarantee. (No connection with the Chuckle Brothers!)
May 23rd, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Why don’t they pray for it? Supposedly god gives you anything you ask for. Jesus said so. (Matthew 21:22)
May 23rd, 2010 at 6:13 pm
God Tv are always asking for money every other day and thats not when they’re running another bunch of shit programmes about the end times which has more paranoid right wing nutjobs than glenn beck and alex jones combined.
May 23rd, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Islam = the religion of Peace
Christianity + Money = Peace
May 23rd, 2010 at 6:34 pm
Does anyone else find the phase “God TV family” cultish, like Charles Manson cultish?
May 23rd, 2010 at 6:43 pm
Buffy: Why don’t they practice what they preach and plant a few seeds? It seems as if all the exhortations to give generously to “The Work of the Lord” only apply to their followers. Don’t you wonder why they never seem to see through it all?
May 23rd, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Here’s a ponderable: how the hell does the bill actually come to around £15.000,000 excluding security? We are talking two flights across Europe in a private jet, then presumably a few days stay in London. Does the Pope have a personal appearance fee with a lot of zeros?
May 23rd, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Ash Walsh: They are feeding on the loneliness and insecurity of some very sad and disturbed people, and they know it! Tuning in to see all these grinning ninnies smiling and waving at them makes these poor souls feel “special” and wanted, and part of a real, loving community. It gives their seemingly pointless lives some sort of relevance, and they really do believe that they are helping in the most important work in the world – hastening the coming of God’s Kingdom!
May 23rd, 2010 at 7:20 pm
I would rather see these loonies join their God asap, leaving us sinners in peace! A whole planet without religion, what a wonderful idea!
May 23rd, 2010 at 7:38 pm
@Stuart W. This man travels in style and with an entourage. Why can’t he travel business class, by the way, with B.A. or Air Italia or whatever. Nor is he going to stay in your ordinary Hilton. He needs more than that. I suspect that if he is going to screw money from our taxes he takes the view that he may as well live it up.
You make a good point. Where is that massive amount of money needed? This is serious money. Particularly when we are paying and are being hammered for increased taxes ourselves.
They do have some bloody imputence, don’t they, forcing this on us when he is such a disaster to the wellbeing of humanity?
May 23rd, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Har Davids, I have heard people say that they wish the “Rapture” thing was actually true. We get rid of every single Christian in one go and then we have modern technology to deal with the tribulations. I rather think that four horsemen armed with flaming swords could be seen off by a helicopter gunship. Violently agressive scorpions could be dealt with using insecticides…
The Catholic Church are like the bloke down the pub who sponges drinks off everyone else but never ever gets a round in. They have absolutely pots of cash but will never spend a single penny of it while they can bilk Catholics and non Catholics alike.
May 23rd, 2010 at 9:10 pm
I can see that i’m going to have problems with my blood pressure as the popes visit gets nearer.What annoys me is the estimation of 400,000 people at the open air masses because the church has probably got the figure right,despite the trinity of scandel-child abuse,cover up and further insult with their pathetic excuses there is still plenty of support for the church.
BTW has everyone seen Tim Minchins ‘pope song’. I seem to be having probs linking but i know you can view it at New Humanist blog.
May 23rd, 2010 at 9:30 pm
Pipkin: here’s the link to the brilliant Pope Song
May 23rd, 2010 at 9:40 pm
It did cross my mind that maybe travel insurance is something ridiculous for head pontiff. But even so, a) private jet journeys typically cost a lower four-figure sum per hour and b) a week in a stunning suite at one of London’s best hotels will cost perhaps ten grand. Then a few more rooms for his entourage at similar price.
This hardly takes a bite out of £15.000,000.
May 23rd, 2010 at 11:58 pm
I’m sure the catholic church could raise the shortfall by selling some of that stuff they’ve got stashed in the vatican,failing that they could advertise on telly asking people to ring in with donations,unfortunatly plenty of idiots would be more than willing.
Thanks for the link BD.
May 24th, 2010 at 12:04 am
Utterly disgusting. But what do we expect for anything linking to the RCC?
May 24th, 2010 at 1:23 am
Back to basics. Vatican city represents trillions of dollars of artworks, sculpture, architecture, and artifacts. Not trillions, actually priceless. The shit they have stolen through the ages. If the pope wants to vacation and campaign for his legitimacy as pedophile grand master, he can certainly afford it. Certainly much more than the British taxpayers. But, it has never been the policy of the RCC to avoid taxing the poor into starvation in order to build their new cathedral or commission a freso, or a religious sculpture surrounded by a fountain. Am I the only one reminded of Wall Street???
We are sooooooooooo fucked.
NeoWolfe
May 24th, 2010 at 9:48 am
StuartW: My fundamentalist friends wouldn’t even consider taking out any sort of insurance! For one thing, what does it say about your faith in God’s ability to protect you if you go to the “unsaved” to insure you against loss, and in the second place (so they argue) how is “God” going to discipline you if you do – he will have to resort to sending along a lot of health problems, or touching your family members or business, etc, to bring you into line! They really do think along these lines!!
May 24th, 2010 at 9:54 am
This site is quite clear that Christians should have nothing to do with insurance. And their reply to the question “What about statutory insurance demanded by mortgage lenders?” is: “Why would a Christian be borrowing money in the first place?”. All this is very familiar to me, I’m afraid!
http://www.bethelministries.com/INSURANCE.htm
May 24th, 2010 at 11:39 am
Bjohn,
Nice link. It must get really complicated for such amoebas when the government requires liability insurance in order to drive a motor vehicle on the street. When they get pulled over by a cop, and he asks for their license, registration and proof of insurance, they can just hand him a free copy of their favorite version of the bible with some page markers. But, I doubt that’s good for any discount as they buy their vehicle out of impound.
Maybe they can buy some impound insurance from god at the church of choice.
NeoWolfe
May 24th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
They only take out Third Party vehicle insurance – exclusive of Fire and Theft – so as to comply with the law whilst keeping a clear conscience!
May 24th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Thanks for the link to “The pope song” Love it.
Still reckon “Storm” is his best.
June 11th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
The Queen has invited the Pope in his capacity as Head of State, therefore, as he isn’t on an official Church visit. It is out of Good will that Catholics are supporting the state in this! Jesus Is Alive.
June 11th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
God does provide, but God also likes to use his people. As his hands and feet here on earth. We have Free will so we have a chose to bless or not. It is soo amazing to give of ourselves and our finances to give glory to God. Their is amazing blessing to those who give. One gives in love not out of duty. God tv needs to be funded in some way, like any charity. Jesus is alive today and working. He wants each of us to turn from all that prevents us from seeing and experiencing God. He Loves us soooo much and his love is truly amazing. I pray all of us are open and willing to receive it.
May you know this Joy 
June 11th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Anon this is an ATHEIST site. Please refrain from posting your preposterous religious crap here.
September 8th, 2010 at 11:10 am
I have a good friend who works at God TV although I am not a Christian myself and he says it’s on it’s knees. Over half the company including him have been made redundant over a one month period and none of the staff have any news on whether there will be more. Money is wasted all the time on last minute decisions presidential suites, flights all over the world, and high donors are fed the Angel mission, give us your money card for clean water wells in Africa to get money in that will not go to the ’cause’.