Approximately 12,000 People Protest the Pope in UK (ATS Citizen Journalist)

Approximately 12,000 people took to the streets of London in protest against the UK Papal visit. Groups including the British Humanist Association (BHA) and the National Secular Society (NSS) rallied on issues surrounding gay rights, child abuse by Catholic priests and the use of condoms.

Notable speakers at the event included the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell and author Richard Dawkins. Victims of child abuse by Catholic priests also spoke to the crowd.

The event passed off without incident and attracted five times the number of people originally expected.

Edit to say: This was my first attempt at covering a protest. Photographing the demonstration was a real buzz, but boy do I need to get fit again!


Union Jack with colours changed to represent gay rights in the UK. London, UK. 18/09/2010.



Young boy poses for a photo before the Protest the Pope march. London, UK. 18/09/2010.



Protest the Pope march begins. London, UK. 18/09/2010.



'Pope Busters'. London, UK. 18/09/2010.



Protester's sign talks of conspiracy theories. London, UK. 18/09/2010.



Man performing an Irish dance at Protest the Pope march. London, UK. 18/09/2010.



Anti Papal visit protester. London, UK. 18/09/2010.



Anti Papal visit protester. London, UK. 18/09/2010.



Anti Papal visit protester. London, UK. 18/09/2010.



Two men watch Protest the Pope march. London, UK. 18/09/2010.



Anti Papal visit protesters. London, UK. 18/09/2010.



Peter Tatchell leads Protest the Pope march. London, UK. 18/09/2010.



Anti Papal visit protester. London, UK. 18/09/2010.



Anti Papal visit protesters. London, UK. 18/09/2010.



Anti Papal visit protester. London, UK. 18/09/2010.

Great photos! Its about time people stood up against the church, its nice now that they don't burn people alive for doing it. If he ever comes to Canada I'll be out there protesting the pope. Don't like the guy, I liked the last pope he was cool he had a pimpin' pope-mobile.

I'm not a christ follower and I don't think the church should be involved in peoples personal business. If to men want to marry or two women that's fine. As for abortion, who cares we are overpopulated as it is, and its a womans choice if she wants to risk a pregnancy, its hard on a womans body and she could die. A man especially one who doesn't know the situation has no right to tell a woman to not abort a pregnancy.

Go protesters go!!!

reply to post by Xiamara


Thank you and I agree. For 12,000 people, it was the most well behaved protest I have been to. They had the gay equivalent to the 'black bloc', the 'pink bloc' there who were really spirited. Both pilgrims and Pope protesters met at the same spot and were all very civilized. The Police were really helpful and I got some great access to the protest.

We have a big anti-war demo coming up in November which promises to be a very different beast altogether.

I agree with some of what you. If the state wants to confer marital status on 2 monkeys then that's up top the state. If the church doesn't want to consecrate it in a church then that should be up to the church. Nor do I think the government should be involved in a person's private business. If i want smoke weed or take X that shuld be my business. By the same token if I don't want to support you with my hard earned dosh then that should be my business. If you object to the Catholic church then why not object to islam which totally prohibits gay anything? I have to see a protest against islam because of the wide spread homophobia in islam. Abortion is hard issue. At what point is a fetus a viable human or do we follow the ancient chinese custom of not conferring human status unit a child is 2? I have no final position on it but is seems a little strange to me that hospitals fall over themselves trying to save premature babies and are willing to abort fetuses of the same age (for want of a better term.)

Originally posted by Xiamara
Great photos! Its about time people stood up against the church, its nice now that they don't burn people alive for doing it. If he ever comes to Canada I'll be out there protesting the pope. Don't like the guy, I liked the last pope he was cool he had a pimpin' pope-mobile.

I'm not a christ follower and I don't think the church should be involved in peoples personal business. If to men want to marry or two women that's fine. As for abortion, who cares we are overpopulated as it is, and its a womans choice if she wants to risk a pregnancy, its hard on a womans body and she could die. A man especially one who doesn't know the situation has no right to tell a woman to not abort a pregnancy.

Go protesters go!!!

Personally I'm more interested in the fact 70,000 people turned out to greet him, www.bbc.co.uk... than about 12000 lefty hot heads, who turned up at the wrong event.
Because the 70k turned up despite the horribly negative, media attention, blackmail that has been used to greet this pope. The 10 million government bill is well spent, because the Vatican is spending more than this sum stimulating our economy. As for the paedophile craziness: This problem has been known to effect a small number of people for years, bringing it up now is the BBC-Newscorp way of punishing the pope for a lack of liberal values.
I don’t agree with much of what the pope says, but I do agree with the right for him to hold his views without being blackmailed-pressured by equally undemocratic, but far more powerful (and “evil” in other issues like war-CO2 bs) people, than any religious leader, ever will be.

Excellent photos - thanks!

Now for the "However". Christians have been TOTALLY brainwashed into thinking that their Church and its leaders can do no wrong, and that any wrong that they do is just the Devil doing his temptation bit, so unfortunately, it is likely that this protest will have NO impact.

My sister went to church for the first time in over 20 years this morning in England for a Harvest Festival ceremony. She was SHOCKED to hear the hymn "We Plough The Fields and Scatter" has now been updated to include "thanks for the Welfare State" and that we "KNOW NOT where our food comes from".

The Vicar even publicly derided her for the food display from the local brownie organization that she was with, rather than thanking them for actually bringing some food in.

She said that they won't be going back, and won't be having anything to do with the Church in the future. She is comfortable and reinforced (BY THE VICAR!) in her decision not to go to Church ever since she was a child.

Originally posted by Liberal1984
Personally I'm more interested in the fact 70,000 people turned out to greet him, www.bbc.co.uk... than about 12000 lefty hot heads, who turned up at the wrong event.
Because the 70k turned up despite the horribly negative, media attention, blackmail that has been used to greet this pope.

The 70,000 have been brainwashed into thinking their religious leaders can do no wrong. It's hardly blackmail for people who have been abused by Catholic priests to demand an apology from the leader of the Catholic Church. The apology should have been given freely, willingly, and publicly, YEARS AGO.

What's disappointing is that only 12,000 people in London have woken up enough to realize the complete illegitimacy of the Catholic Church and its leaders, and religion in general, and to care enough to protest this visit.

David Icke appears to have his work cut out for him.

reply to post by pacific_waters


It's mothers choice. Not hospitals. Again a woman risks her life to bring life into the world. Some women would sacrifice them self for the unborn child others not so much. I am on the side of if a pregnancy is going to do harm to me and it risks my life and the fetuses so much so that the fetus may be born with defects hindering their extended life then I will abort because I can try again and there are different precautions and things I can do. Its really up to the mother.

Rape victims its the same thing some women who do get pregnant with a rapists baby fear the child and will either abort or give the baby up. Especially Incest rapes, I would abort for sure if I was raped and there was incest. Because it causes problems down the line to other generations. Its all personal choice.

My personal opinion is abort as a final option but there are others who don't want to risk having a child, accidents happen, condom breaks, a little guy gets past, miss one pill, the pill doesn't work.... It's a personal choice. Its better to have it open freely than having women end up dying because they did a self abortion, look up the stats. Its sad how many women died because of over doses, sepsis, and complications because they got a back ally abortion. Make it legal, save the lives of many women.

"Self righteous people, who think they are doing the world good are too full of themselves to realize they aren't, let people make their own choices."--- Unnamed Family Friend

Good to see your active Larry, next time round, try to take some snap shots of the riot police or plain clothes, that should trigger them off the bend, either way, good work.

Thats great,
I am glad that people are finally standing up to that brainwashing cult.
Organized religions dont pay taxes, They steal money from people, They molest children, They demonize people, They start wars, and they make a mockery of god source!!

Originally posted by babybunnies

The 70,000 have been brainwashed into thinking their religious leaders can do no wrong.

Just judging from their 21st century clothing; I think you’d be hard pressed to find a single one of them, who had not heard the various scandals (especially following the pope's apology).
So if they’ve been “brainwashed” into anything at all, it’s simply to believe that their church remains a well qualified institution, to interrupt the teachings of the bible-God. Non-god believers certainly aren’t best informed about the joys-community spirit, of sharing a common, religious, faith!

It's hardly blackmail for people who have been abused by Catholic priests to demand an apology from the leader of the Catholic Church.

Well yeah, obviously. But the way the media is highlighting this issue (during the pope visit) is the high level, political blackmail, going on, against the churches insistence of having faith in its more conservative, teachings.
Its hardly difficult to believe the evil-devil of man, penetrates each and everyone of our institutions-organisations. The bible teachers that faith in god-morality only lowers its influence (but not eliminate it, if your not true to it).

What's disappointing is that only 12,000 people in London have woken up enough to realize the complete illegitimacy of the Catholic Church and its leaders,

Actually I was disappointed to hear that so many people were arrogant, and media brainwashed enough to bother protesting against a religious faith.

I Slam…
I never saw 12,000 protest over I-slams views on homosexuality, but then those people have the privilege of being non-white (and tend to get 10times more barbaric-violent, than Christians; whenever their faith is “threatened”).
If only Catholic church had some Museum doormen! Then the InHam’s would probably teach your protesters, an explosive(s) lesson!!!

But don’t you think it a little ironic, that a religion that is about 5 times more backward than anything to do with Catholicism, never gets 12k protesters?
I’ve never heard of many paedophile Mohammed’s, but I suspect it’s just because they stone their victims to death (metaphorically speaking, of course) (well in this country anyway!!).

reply to post by Liberal1984


Looks like you've been brainwashed into thinking the pope and his god are good and the people who know the truth are bad. The Pope is a Nazi, Illuminati, Paedophile, Child Sacrificing, Demon Worshipping sorry excuse for a human being. And his poor brainwashed 'flock' are believing all his lies because they think that when they die they will be rewarded in heaven.......Yeah Right!!!

The British tax payers have paid what they can ill afford at this time for this man to continue to enforce the will of GOD and to excuse his and his priests disgusting history. GOD does not exist. This man knows this but continues to spread the lie for control.

That is what I call BRAINWASHING!!!!!!

Here's the talk from Richard Dawkins,makes some rather good points. Especially about what the pope said about athiesm and aquainting it with nazism. He must have forgotten that Hitler was a Roman Catholic, and was doing "gods work"

reply to post by tristar


Thank you. For 12,000 people, there was a surreal sense of harmony amongst the ranks of protesters. I was not impeded or harassed by the Police at all, and allowed great access to photograph. However, I really needed a press pass at the end where the final rally speeches were being made.

I am working on growing me a set of steel photographic balls to cover the EDL demonstrations. It can get quite violent drawing those protests and photographers are known to wear helmets because of the projectiles launched at police and sometimes journalists.

reply to post by Acidtastic


Yes, the final rally speeches were good. For what everyone thinks about him, Peter Tatchell is a passionate human rights fighter. He came across as an honest campaigner when I met and talked with him at the protest.

That kid looks really bored...

You can tell his sign says 'keep pope out of woman's rights' but his mind is saying 'I have Halo Reach at home damn it!'

I have been pretty apathetic to the whole pope visit to be honest, I really don't care at all. The only thing that annoyed me was the fact that the tax payer had to fork out for it. But we also had to fork out for a good chunk of the G20 in London too. I was more annoyed about that BS mainly because these were people who can and do affect the direction our lives will take in the future. Not just some puppet for a decaying religious organisation.

reply to post by LarryLove


Great thread.

Forget chuches and forget the pope.

Sigh; I was excited to see this then I noticed that this protest is the product of many conspiracy theories. The reptilian one did make me laugh though.

reply to post by Big Raging Loner


From a news perspective, the Vatican PR machine has been in overdrive. The visit has been very successful and wasn't mired in the level of controversy forecasted. What really became clear on Saturday was the level of multi-ethnicity amongst the Pilgrims. For all that is wrong with the church, the Pope still drew an audience of 80,000 on that day.

It was an interesting story to cover, albeit I selected the protesters, but tried to be as honest with the images as possible. There are several that aren't on display in this thread and one in particular shows pilgrims and protesters meeting in opposite directions on a flight of stairs, seemingly unaware of each other. It displays the good nature between both groups of people.

reply to post by Ignorance_Defier


That sign about a Masonic reptilian Pope was just for ATS. It was towards the end of the day and chanced upon it thinking it had a good ATS angle!

There were people protesting Hollie Greig too.