Interesting, these complaints about the Pope’s visit! There is a level of outrage on Facebook that starts getting overboard. I don’t have a problem with people not being keen on the Pope or the Catholic Church or this event. I myself am not a big Pope fan and I won’t go to Phoenix Park or Croke Park, but I have an issue with lies and half-truths, just to justify a bigger “amount” of outrage.
Here are some of the arguments:
1) The horrible pope is costing us 32 mio. taxpayers money.
2) Nobody wants to see the Pope, but he will cost us lots of money.
3) Because of the Pope homeless people will have to stay off the streets over the weekend
4) It is the Pope’s fault that I can’t get out of my house on Sunday
Let’s do a fact check on these reasons for outrage:
1) The horrible pope is costing us 32 mio. taxpayers money.
It is indeed estimated that the visit might cost 32 mio, although nobody really knows yet the exact amount. Of the 32 mio I read that 20mio, the Catholic church is paying and the rest is paid by the state. So then it is 12mio instead of 32mio! In addition, the 32mio is not that huge in comparison to recent state visits: When Obama and the Queen where in Ireland, the combined visit did cost 36mio and of that amount about 15mio were paid DIRECTLY to the Gardai.
Interestingly, most of the 32mio will be paid to people and for services or products in Ireland, so that means the money is staying in the economy and then cycling money is often an important process to stimulate the economy. And why is the whole thing costing that much, well because close to 600,000 people have to be accommodated and a international guest has to be protected.
Look at it this way: The promoter of a big “popstar” has discovered that there is an audience that wants to see that performer. The promoter is certainly keen to run the gig and bring the performer to the country. If no one had requested tickets, there would be no gig in Phoenix Park!
2) Nobody wants to see the Pope, but he will cost us lots of money.
When the invite went out at least 500,000 tickets were requested and this is a lot more than “nobody”. Now protesters will tell you that they all have requested 12 or 24 or thousands of tickets and have no intention to use them. You could argue that this is not very tolerant and open minded, but let’s look at it from a different angle. If we assume that the cost of the visit is 32 mio and 600,000 tickets have been given out, then the 24 tickets a protester might have secured will cost 24 x 53 Euro. So complaining about the cost and sitting on tickets sounds a little hypocritical.
If the fans buy up all the (free) tickets, then the promoter has to prepare for a BIG gig. He can not assume that half of the fans won’t appear.
3) Because of the Pope homeless people will have to stay off the streets over the weekend.
Actually I would be surprised if the Pope had requested or even demanded that!! But maybe it is our government who doesn’t want to seem to have nothing done in that area. So why are people criticising the Pope over the homeless situation this weekend and not the government?
Yes, I know, the 32 mio could have helped a few homeless, but it is not that we would provide housing for everyone if these 32 mio hadn’t been spent. Last year we didn’t know yet that the Pope would come and we still didn’t spend 32mio or even 2 additional mio. It is not the Pope’s fault that the money is not spent where it is needed.
4) It is the Pope’s fault that I can’t get out of my house on Sunday.
Ohh, did he make the plans for traffic diversions and restrictions? Sure if he didn’t come, there would be no traffic restrictions, but the traffic restrictions are caused by the large amount of people that MIGHT come (including the unused protester tickets!) and also by the Gardai in Ireland. Not by the Pope or by the Church! Oh and by the way, the Phoenix Park neighbours who complain so loudly should just for a GAA weekend swap with people around Croke Park to realise how good they have it ALL year every year apart from the odd Pope visit every 40 years or so.
There are LOTs of things you can have a serious issue with the Catholic Church over, but people should stick to the real issues like child abuse and hypocrisy and the attitude to women and LGBTs etc. Yes you can get outraged about all that and you have every right to be. But getting outraged with a person or an organisation over nonsense like road closures etc is just weakening the correct and important discussion about all the other issues.
On Monday the Pope is gone again, I wonder what will cause the next wave of outrage. :-O
So, that’s my outrage sorted! LOL
