Latest UK Papal Preparations

Well--the British haven't been fond of the Church for some time now, of course, but...really?

As if the ramp-up to September's papal pilgrimage to Britain wasn't wild enough already, word's emerged of the state broadcaster's contribution to the clamor:

[T]he BBC is planning a 90-minute drama which will take as its premise what would happen if the Pope were to go on trial for covering up sex abuse perpetrated by priests. A BBC spokesman denied any knowledge of the project, but Paul Gilbert, who works in the corporation's drama department, admitted that he had for the past two weeks been involved with the "development" of a project with the working title of The Pope on Trial. He said it was "too early" to talk about casting or on what channel it was envisaged the drama would be broadcast.

The planned program isn't the first piece of PopeTrip media coverage to spark outrage in the UK: the independent Channel 4 has commissioned a documentary on the pontiff from the country's most prominent gay-rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, to run in advance of Benedict's arrival. While Tatchell's pledged that his film "will not be anti-Catholic," in a recent interview with the Church Times the activist termed B16 "the ideological inheritor of Nazi homophobia" and spoke of his desire to "stop the papal mass and float condoms over the cathedral" -- adding, for good measure, that he "would like to try to arrest" the visitor. By contrast, it all makes the Grey Lady's latest look rather sedate.