Colm Tóibín reviews The Pope is Not Gay! for the London Review of Books:
Quattrocchi draws our attention to the amount of care, since his 
election, Ratzinger has taken with his accessories, wearing designer sunglasses, for example, or gold cufflinks, and different sorts of funny hats and a pair of red shoes from Prada that would take the eyes out of you. He has also been having fun with his robes. On Ash Wednesday 2006, for example, he wore a robe of ‘Valentino red’ – called after the fashion designer – with ‘showy gold embroidery’ and soon afterwards changed into a blue associated with another fashion designer, Renato Balestra. In March 2007, for a visit to the juvenile prison at Casal del Marno, he wore an extraordinary tea-rose-coloured costume.
The full article is available here.
Angelo Quattrocchi’s new book The Pope is Not Gay! is available now in paperback.
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A “Protest the Pope” public meeting is being held this evening at 7:30pm at:
Richmond Library, Old Town Hall, Whittaker Ave, Richmond, TW9 1TP
The Pope’s first event in London, on the 17 September, will be at St Mary’s University College in Twickenham, south west London. The pontiff will talk about his views on education, which have included his support for separate faith schools and the right of these schools to discriminate in their admissions policy and their recruitment of staff. .
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell says:
The Protest the Pope campaign rejects the promotion of religiously segregated education. We believe in the right of all children to an unbiased education, where school admission policies are non-discriminatory and where there is no discrimination in recruitment and employment.
Protest the Pope is supporting a coalition of local groups and people, based in south west London, who have organised a public meeting to express their disagreement with Pope Benedict’s opposition to women’s rights, gay equality, fertility treatment for childless couples, embryonic stem cell research and the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV.
The meeting is open to the public and the speakers are:
David Pollock, President of the European Humanist Federation, will talk about the Catholic Church’s influence at European level as a result of the Lisbon treaty.
Keith Porteous Wood, Chief Executive of the National Secular Society, will talk about the pressure growing at the United Nations on the Vatican, which is failing to produce a report on child protection…
Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, will talk about the “Protest the Pope” Campaign and the six main reasons why we are against against honouring Joseph Ratzinger with a State Visit.
Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner, will talk about Catholic dissent from the Pope’s hardline, intolerant opposition to liberation theology, women’s rights, gay equality, contraception, fertility treatment, embryonic stem cell research and the Pope’s collusion with Holocaust deniers and appeasers.
See the Facebook event for more information here.
Note: The main entrance to the Old Town Hall is from Whittaker Avenue, up a flight of stone steps. The building has disabled access off Whittaker Avenue, next to the entrance to the Information Centre.
More information:
Peter Tatchell – 0207 403 1790
Marco Tranchino – 07806 647 903
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