Pope: ‘Fond memories’ of UK visit
By politics.co.uk staff
Pope Benedict XVI has used a Christmas radio message to reach out to British Catholics.
In a statement recorded for the Today programme’s ‘Thought for the day’ segment, the pontiff told listeners that the story of Christ “was not a political liberation that he brought achieved through military means. Rather, Christ destroyed this forever.”
He recalled his controversial visit to the UK earlier in the year “with great fondness”, adding: “I am glad to have the opportunity to greet you again, and indeed to greet listeners everywhere as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ.”
He continued “I pray for your families, for your children, for those who are sick, and for those who are going through any form of hardship at this time.”
It is understood to have been the first occasion on which a Pope has addressed a single country he has recently visited in this manner for Christmas, after negotiation with the BBC.
Pope Benedict continued: “God is always faithful to his promises, but often surprises us in the way He fulfils them.”
The decision to allow the recording did not meet with universal acclaim. On the same programme, Keith Porteous Wood, director of National Secular Society (NSS), called it “an extraordinarily bad choice for the BBC” and a “slap in the face to those tens and hundreds of thousands of child abuse victims”.
