Protests to Pope's Visit to World Youth Day

World Youth Day is a Catholic event for young people between the ages of 18 and 30. Over one million young people have arrived in Madrid, Spain to celebrate their faith and to grow in their love of Jesus Christ together as a community. Over the next 3 days there will be plenty of news coverage on what is a great event for all Catholics, and a great spectacle whether religious or not.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14568707

Some of the peaceful events of WYD have however been marred by some ugly protests centered around Plaza del Sol in the centre of Madrid. There have been reports of violence, intimidation and threats.

First of all, if people want to protest whatever they want they're perfectly entitled to although it should be done peacefully always. The main reason for the protests has been the reported burden on the public finances which are being used to cover the trip with the message being that in a time of economic cut backs public money should not be used to finance such an event. As some of the media coverage has been incredibly one sided, I wanted to share some information you may not have heard which shows that maybe the reasons for the protest aren't in the cause of public finances:

1) In Spain you can choose NOT to have your taxes given to Church on your ballot paper. If you don't want any of your tax money to go towards these activities, you don't have to, it's completely your choice so if any public money is being used for this trip, it has been raised through people voluntarily donating their tax money.

2) Whether you agree with it or not, this is officially classified as a state visit and as such the Spanish government is required to meet its security obligation which would be afforded to any other official state visit.

3) Each official Catholic pilgrim is paying over 200euros towards the costs of the visit, which will make up 70% of the total cost, the rest will be made up from donations from large companies such as Banco Santander & Coca Cola.

4) There are estimates of around 1.5million people flooding into the Spanish capital and participating, using services, hotels, restaurants etc. which will outweigh the costs (around 100m Euros some believe).

5) I wonder what these protesters, who are so concerned about their tax money, would think about their tax money going on policing and clean-up of their violent protests?

6) They didn't seem too concerned about the clean-up costs for example of the M-15 protests, Gay Pride etc. I've been in Madrid during Gay Pride and the streets in the centre of Madrid get absolutely ruined. Will they call for these to be cancelled this year? I think not. Maybe these protests aren't really about money?

In conclusion don’t be fooled by the news coverage that these protesters receive, they are not being motivated by concerns over public finances. They are motivated by their hatred towards the Church. The media may focus upon these protests but they are in the tiniest majority, as was the same with Pope Benedict’s visit to the UK for the Beatification of Bless John Henry Newman. Spain is still a very Catholic country and anyone in Madrid at the moment will tell you that the streets of Madrid of full of Catholics, and the protesters are a small minority despite the disproportionate coverage they will receive.

Again if people wish to protest peacefully for any reason they are more than welcome to, we live in a free society! But these protesters are woefully ill informed about the finances of World Youth Day.

Inbetweeners Movie: A Christian Response

The 17^th of August will see the release of the movie version of hit TV show, The Inbetweeners. It follows the lives of four teenage school boys during their sixth form years and has been a large success over its three series stint attracting a wide and mostly young audience. I have watched a couple of episodes of the series and certainly there are some genuinely funny moments, the relationship between Will and Mr Gilbert being one of them, but it is a series mostly based on lude comments, around attempted sexual conquests and general vulgarity.

As said in my previous blog the main objective of a Christian life is to follow Jesus Christ with all our strength, he calls us personally to live a life of love for God and for all. A lack of chastity (selfless love for others according to our specific situation in life) has warped our society’s view of love, and as Christians we find ourselves in a constant battle against society in our quest for purity. If we are to strive to live out true purity of heart we must control what we are exposed to. What goes into us (via the senses) forms our consciences and makes us who we are. Someone who is serious about being an athlete wouldn't spend their time consuming junk food and neither should we as we train to be holy. If you don’t think that watching a movie about a few teenagers trying to have sex will affect you, well imagine the opposite; a culture where the only sex spoken of in the media told of the joy and beauty of waiting for marriage, where having sex before marriage was seen as the “weird” thing to do. Would that shape you? Yes. The same is true the other way around and we must take care of what we watch if we are to live pure and chaste lives.

I’m certain that virtually all of us will know people who will go to see it indeed we may be looking forward to going and seeing it ourselves. However when faced with movies of such content, as Christians we should act with caution. In western society we are surrounded by impurity in all forms of media (adverts, television, internet, magazines, newspapers etc.) and as Christians we should do our best to avoid it however difficult. We don't need to be pedantic about it, for example an hour and a half movie with one sexual scene which can easily be skipped is okay, but this movie is something different. Judging from the series and the trailers it can be deduced that this won’t be a movie with only some sparse references of a vulgar nature; drinking, lust, sex etc. will be the main focus.

St James in his letter said that with a horse, if you control its mouth you control the whole animal and the same is true with our eyes. In a Christian’s journey to chastity we must control what we look at as images are difficult to get out of our mind, and what we look at trains our body. If we hammer such images into our minds, which images and messages will we recall when we are faced with temptation? This is an opportunity for all Christians to be “in the world, but not of it” as John Paul II said and to set an example by not going to see this movie which is part of a wider trend of a normalisation of self gratifying sexual activity where any talk of chastity or waiting until marriage is scoffed at. The question for Christians really is are you willing to give God your eyes, give Him your ears and give Him your tongue? Even if it means missing out on something you were looking forward to? Love takes sacrifice.

If you do choose to abstain from watching this film due to its vulgar content, it should only be a reflection (or perhaps a start!) of what each of us should be trying to do in our own lives; remove all stains of impurity in thoughts, words and actions. I hope that I don’t come across as speaking down to anyone, I’m simply asking the Christians reading this to pray and reflect on this decision because it’s a battle that I have been deeply in and it is a tough battle which can only be won through a radical and total change in what we watch, how we speak, what we allow ourselves to think, but it's a battle we all must face if we truly aim to give our lives fully to Christ. Ask yourself a simple question: will this movie further or hinder you in your journey to purity and holiness and towards love of God? Reflect and pray about it before going to see the movie.

As Catholics we use the examples of Saints as guides for living out the Christian faith and so I’ll leave you with a couple of quotes from one of the most recent Saints we’ve had in the Church, San Jose Maria Escriva:

“Never talk of impure things or events, not even to deplore them. Look, it’s a subject that sticks more than tar. Change the conversation, or if that’s not possible, continue, but speaking of the need and beauty of holy purity – a virtue of the men who know what their souls are worth.”

“When you decide firmly to lead a clean life, chastity will not be a burden on you: it will be a crown of triumph”

To find out what Christian chastity is, please visit:

http://www.chastity.com

Let us pray that by God’s grace all may come to desire and live out the virtue of chastity.

Paul.