Several people from Cornwall have joined the one and half million people who are with Pope Benedict in Spain this week. This includes the Dean of Cornwall and some of his parishioners.
The BBC gave its usual jaundiced coverage on the Today programme this morning - a few seconds on the 'thousands' who are protesting at the supposed cost to Spanish tax payers. This is despite the fact that the event is being paid for by the young pilgrims who have all had to raise several hundred pounds over the past year (they will also be spending their euros in Madrid). The journalist Andrew Brown was quick to note this however:
The ability of mainstream Christianity to attract a crowd of 1.5 million young people seems to me a damn sight more newsworthy......Numbers don't prove truth, of course. But they are measures of commitment, and of political importance. Three hundred times as many people have travelled to Madrid to see the pope as have travelled to protests against him. Which group is more important to know about?
Given the recent events concerning the morally confused rioters in our country, the gathering of these young pilgrims from all over the world - motivated by the highest ideals - provides a miraculous countersign. There is an element in BBC that just doesn't get religion and it seems to have excelled itself in being particularly perverse this time.
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