"Of which we’ll encounter a lot as the visit approaches"

Damian Thompson, zeker de meest humoristische en probably de intelligentste katholieke journalist van Engeland, geeft een voorbeschouwinkje van het type verslaggeving dat we mogen verwachten rond het aanstaande pausbezoek aan Engeland en Schotland:

Let me give you advance notice of a dodgy news story involving Benedict XVI and the Jews that’s likely to surface somewhere in the Pope-baiting media. A Left-wing journalist has been ringing round his fellow hacks trying to flog an article claiming that Britain’s Jewish community will be mortally offended because Benedict will deliver his historic address to distinguished figures in Westminster Hall on the afternoon/evening of Friday September 17 – ie, the Sabbath. Actually, the detailed itinerary hasn’t been announced yet, and I would have thought it quite possible that the speech would be over before sundown – the Pontiff has a later engagement at Westminster Abbey, after all. But, even if the speech overlaps with the start of Shabbat, so what? It’s proving incredibly difficult to organise the logistics of this four-day visit. The Pope would naturally wish to send a message of goodwill to Britain’s Jewish community; the suggestion that any clash between his speech and their religious obligations constitutes a snub is malicious garbage. Of which we’ll encounter a lot as the visit approaches.
Incidentally, I’d love to know if various media organisations have decided which paedophile scandal they’ll unveil to coincide with the papal visit. And will they produce their headlines just before the trip, in the hope that it will be cancelled at the last minute, or as the Pope’s plane lands on the tarmac? I suppose we’ll just have to wait to find out.