Cardinal Walter Kasper, a senior Papal advisor, was quoted as saying to the Germanys’ Focus magazine that "when you land at Heathrow you think at times you have landed in a Third World country".
He also stated that the UK was marked by "a new and aggressive atheism".
These are ill advised comments from anyone planning to visit a country, and even more so from a person in a position of influence and power.
But what did he mean?
Heathrow is a one of the busiest airports in the world, with a huge footfall of passengers. The new terminal was built to help cater for this, so it can’t be that the terminals are run down.
Could it possibly be that he is referring to the multicultural passengers and staff at the terminals?
Could it be that he is racist?
Not a very tolerant attitude from a cleric in such a senior position.
He also stated that the UK was marked by "a new and aggressive atheism".
This is also a bit of a woolly statement, atheism is not new, and I have yet to meet anyone who is aggressive with their atheism.
The UK does have an increasing number of people that state they are atheist, but there are also a growing number of people claiming allegiance to faiths other than Catholic Christianity.
Could he possibly mean that, there are less Catholics residing in the UK than there used to be?
Could he mean that he regards all non Catholics as atheist?
Well guess what, Henry VIII died 500 years ago.
If he is unwell as is claimed, I wish him a speedy recovery, but I would have preferred an apology to the UK, rather than a lame excuse not to accompany the Pope on his state visit.
Yet again this highlights the hypocrisy of people with power and influence.
He's a Turnip
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