The Pope's visit: where do you stand?

Terry Sanderson president of the National Secular Society and spokesman for Protest the Pope campaign
The Pope seems able to change hats from being a religious leader to a head of state, depending
on which will be most advantageous to him at the time. On this visit he will be funded as a head of state, but behave like a religious leader.

We don't fund the Dalai Lama and we don't fund the Grand Mufti of Egypt and we shouldn't be spending tens of millions on Joseph Ratzinger, either. This is a man who some want arrested for
crimes against humanity, and yet the Prime Minister and the Queen will laud him as some kind of hero. He has a lot of very awkward questions to answer, and the Protest the Pope campaign will do its utmost to ensure those questions are asked while he is in this country.

We know the BBC isn't going to embarrass him with anything challenging during its Pope-fest,
so it will be up to the rest of us to make sure Joseph Ratzinger doesn't get away with it completely.'

Julian Clary author,comedian and recovering Catholic
'I'm not personally interested in seeing her Holiness. Couldn't they just send the frocks instead?'

Rhona Cameron comedian
'I think some sort of spiritual faith is important, vital even. Not a practice that is used to control and oppress, however. Something that is all-inclusive, like Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism. When the Pope mouths a lot of shite, don't we just sigh and feel for the poor misguided old wretch? But the taxpayer shouldn't be footing the bill.'

Martin Pendergast founder member of the Catholic Lesbian & Gay Christian Movement
'There's a range of views among LGBT Catholics. While I don't sense a great opposition to the
pastoral nature of a papal visit, a good number have strong reservations about the “state” aspect of the visit. At the ordinary parish level, I don't sense huge waves of enthusiasm either. Benedict simply doesn't engage with people in the way that John Paul II did.

The fact that the main focus of the visit will be the beatification of John Henry Newman also only engages a minority of Catholics in the UK. Most ordinary Catholics, particularly from the various immigrant communities, will hardly know Newman, except perhaps for a couple of his hymns. LGBT Catholics will be glad that someone with an intense emotional but celibate
relationship with another man (Ambrose St John) is being beatified.

I sense more a curiosity about what he might say, particularly in his Westminster Hall speech, regarding the nature of British society, not least after the uninformed comments he made in his speeches to English, Welsh and Scottish bishops in their two five-yearly visits to the Vatican earlier this year. Will he respect the UK's diverse nature and value our commitment to equality in diversity?

Will he affirm the English and Welsh bishops in their pragmatic, rather than ideological approach to the pastoral care of LGBT Catholics ? I personally respect the right of people to protest, but I don't think it will impact on him as such. Much of it is based on a lack of real knowledge or understanding of the Pope's role, and an assumption that the Pope personally authors every document that comes out in his name and that all Catholics immediately fall to their knees.

That said, of course he authorises publication of said documents, so must accept responsibility as such. Thankfully, the Vatican's teaching on homosexuality is third-level teaching, subject to properly conscientious dissent, as are a number of other teachings at this level.

Joe Stanley chair, Soho Masses Pastoral Council
Of course the Pope should be made welcome in Britain! He's the spiritual leader of about six million UK Catholics, and the head of an institution that collects and spends millions of pounds a year on looking after the poor, the sick and the dying, educating kids, building hospitals and organising disaster relief.

Look at Cafod's current response to the Pakistan floods! Catholic populations are traditionally progressive.Portugal was the first country to give women the vote. We have gay marriage in Spain
and Argentina. Progressives in this country shouldn't alienate British Catholics.

On top of this, we know this Pope is getting rid of the dodgy characters in the Vatican ministries and appointing sensible guys instead. And we, in particular, are very happy that he doesn't have a problem with the Archbishop of Westminster reaching out to the LGBT Catholic community in London through the Soho Masses.

None of this is to deny for one second the wrongness of child-abuse scandals, the opinion held by a senior cardinal about condoms, nor the disappointment people feel about the rules on women priests or priestly celibacy, or about the slowness with which Catholic moral teaching develops in response to scientific and medical advances on questions of sexual identity.

As for the protests, I've got nothing against them, but suspect they won't have much effect on the discussions going on within the Catholic community on the way forward.