Protesters pelted Catholic pilgrims with condoms yesterday as they made the most of a court ruling allowing them to “annoy” participants at the church’s World Youth Day festival in Sydney.
A pilgrimage walk organized for the festival took many young worshippers through the city’s gay district, where about 500 people demonstrated against Pope Benedict XVI’s opposition to homosexuality and contraception.
On the sidelines of the protest, pictures depicted Pope Benedict as the devil and as the evil emperor from Star Wars, while a sign called for people to “debaptize.”
PHOTO: AFP
A loose alliance of groups opposed to the papal visit spoke, including gays, advocates of contraception, victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and the Raelian cult, which believes Jesus was sent by extraterrestrials.
Chanting “Pope go homo, gay is great” and singing “Pope is wrong, put a condom on,” the protesters threw condoms at the pilgrims, who were making their way to Randwick racecourse for an overnight prayer vigil.
Among the protesters was a drag queen dressed in pink and going under the moniker of “Pope Alice,” while others wore T-shirts with slogans such as “Thank God I’m an atheist” and “Bless me father for I am a homo.”
There was a heavy police presence at the protest, including officers on horses, and demonstrators were cordoned off from the bulk of the worshippers.
Police said they arrested one man after a clash between protesters and pilgrims, but released him without charge. No formal complaint had been lodged.
But the police actions were limited after a court last week struck down a law aimed at stopping anyone from “annoying” pilgrims. A police officer said the protest had been largely good-natured.
The Australian federal court said the law passed by the New South Wales government for the six-day youth celebration undermined free speech because annoyance was such a subjective term.
Activists had complained that the law could lead to arrests and fines of up to A$5,500 (US$5,335) for simply wearing a T-shirt with a slogan that could be deemed annoying to those at the festivities.
Some protesters said police had still attempted to restrict what could be distributed, however.
“I was handing out leaflets of the alternative 10 commandments and he took that away,” said Colin Charlton, sporting a T-shirt saying “Pontifex Me Vexat” or “The pope annoys me” in Latin.
The pilgrims, who were attending the prayer vigil ahead of a papal mass today involving an estimated 500,000 people, appeared unfazed by the protest, with some making peace signs as they passed by.
Margaret Leatuafi from New Zealand said pilgrims had been advised by World Youth day organizers not to retaliate if the protesters challenged their faith.
“They are allowed to have their say too about what they believe but maybe they need to do a bit more study [about the church],” the 55-year-old said.
As the line of thousands of pilgrims heading towards Randwick petered out, the protesters headed away under close police surveillance, singing the Christian hymn Kum-Ba-Ya to the words “Put a condom on.”
Before dispersing the protesters held an impromptu “Hunky Jesus” competition, led by Australian drag star Tobin Saunders, told pope jokes and held a largely same-sex kiss-in.
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