When the Pope met Boris
Freddy Gray 4:35pm
A good scoop from The Catholic Herald. Stuart Reid reveals what Mayor Boris Johnson said to
the Pontiff last night:
Now that’s what I call diplomacy.'I’d like to tell you what went on in the Royal Suite at Terminal 4 last night when Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, met Joseph Ratzinger, the Pope of Rome.“I told the Pope,” said Boris, “that what was wrong with Britain was that the Roman Emperor Honorius told the Brits in 410 AD that Rome was no longer able to protect them.
“From that time,” said Boris to the Pope, “the British have had a sense of desertion, of confusion, of rejection.”
What did the Pope make of that? I asked Boris. “He looked hunted. His eyes flickered around the room.”
Did he saying anything? “Yes”, said Boris. “He said: ‘Very interesting’.”
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Michael
September 17th, 2010 4:55pm Report this commentAs a semi-Brit, Boris may have "a sense of desertion, of confusion, of rejection.”
Personally as a Brit of many generations, I don't and praise the day Good King Hal enabled us to escape Rome.
charles hercock
September 17th, 2010 4:58pm Report this commentVortigern would have been proud of you Boris although the rejection made us what we are
Frank P
September 17th, 2010 5:48pm Report this commentThere are some rejections that turn out to be entirely efficacious. Pity London did not reject the ludicrous idea of a Mayoral Office for Greater London, when Dick Whittington's old job was already filled; since its inception, the new and entirely
useless bureaucracy has been expensive and corrupt; it has been led by two consecutive Kuwaiti tankers, both steaming in the wrong direction, albeit in different colours (allegedly). Pontification is for Popes, Boris me old cocker, not for ex-TV comedians - wasting the resources of Britain's capital city and spreading multi-culti crap in the process. I'll bet the Godfather of Godfathers gives as much credence to what Boris had to say as I do.
I can imagine that the "Vee-eery interesssting ..." was followed sotto voce by, " ... but stewpid!"
Noa Zrk
September 17th, 2010 6:16pm Report this comment“that what was wrong with Britain was that the Roman Emperor Honorius told the Brits in 410 AD that Rome was no longer able to protect them..".
As one Saxon would say to another.
Commentator
September 17th, 2010 7:38pm Report this comment"Good King Hal": aren't you referring to a paranoid psychotic syphilitic monster who had thousands of his subjects arrested on trumped-up charges, tortured and put to death in the most horrible manner (including two of his wives)? The man was the Saddam Hussein of his day.
Jess The Dog
September 17th, 2010 11:54pm Report this commentSome truth in that. I was wondering over the last couple of days why Britain was not a Catholic country...not just down to Henry VIII, Elizabeth and Cromwell. Maybe a deeper-rooted Anglo Saxon tradition, despite Norman conquest, with the Church across the Channel moving in a radically different direction...
Mr Dark
September 18th, 2010 9:35am Report this commentWhy are Londoners spending £400 million a year on a music hall turn as mayor?
Hadrian
October 23rd, 2010 9:26pm Report this commentI knew as soon as I heard of the idea that a London Mayor would just yet another costly layer of wasteful bureaucracy.
As for Rome's protection, that particular empire was doomed by itrs pagan, humanistic roots. Vain is the help of man. Boris, a good Tory,supposedly suspicious of the State's innate power, ought to know better.
And yes, Henry was a 's**t' as they embroidered it in Carry on Henry. But no worse than his contemporaries, those totally corrupt, hard, cruel popes and their minions.
Reading their lives makes highly unedifying reading..enough to depress even a Roman Catholic. If that is the embodiment of 'Holiness', then God help us all.
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