Duncan Gillies: Public unhappy at having to pay for preacher's visit

Opinion

So the great humanitarian is hitting the road once again. With sales of his latest CD not reaching expected heights, and recent events proving a distraction, he is off to preach to the people once again.

Only thing is, the people hadn't realised how much it would cost them.

No, I'm not talking about Bono, who, after a back operation , is heading to New Zealand for U2 concerts, the tickets for which carried an unexpected $19 service fee.

I'm talking about that other ageing idealist who tells the rest of the world how to live while enjoying all the ivory tower comforts of power and popularity, Pope Benedict.

The German Pontiff - who was no doubt disappointed to see how the church sex abuse scandal hit sales of last year's Alma Mater: Music from the Vatican - heads to Britain next week for the first papal visit since Pope John Paul II in 1982.

And it's the £12 million ($25.7 million) that taxpayers are expected to fork out that's upset many.

The Vatican, said to be contributing £14 million, defends the cost to taxpayers, explaining that Benedict has been invited by the highest authorities of the state - the Queen and the Government - and by the local Church.

I'm sure Benedict could have done more to keep his costs down. Even a week out from his trip I was still able to find flights between Italy and Britain with budget airline RyanAir for £99. All he would have had to do was rent a popemobile at the airport and he'd be set - and probably for less than £1000.

A group calling itself Protest the Pope had hoped Benedict would be arrested on his arrival in Britain for alleged crimes against humanity for his supposed role in the cover-up of child abuse within the Church.

The group now accepts that won't happen because Britain acknowledges him as a head of state, granting him sovereign immunity from criminal prosecution.

But he is more than that to devout Catholics. He's a spiritual leader with a Leonard Cohen-like rock star mystique. How else would organisers have been able to get that miracle of modern music, Susan Boyle, to perform alongside him in Glasgow.

He is also infallible, meaning in the eyes of Catholics he can't make a mistake. Sort of like Paul the Octopus but not so interested in major sporting events.

But while a ComRes survey this week found that 77 per cent of people in Britain think taxpayers should not be funding the trip and that 79 per cent of people have "no personal interest" in the tour, there have been signs even Catholics may not be as excited about the Pope's visit as you might think.

Dioceses across Britain were allocated a number of places for each of the major events on the three-day visit - after arriving in Edinburgh on Friday, Benedict will perform an open-air Mass in Glasgow on Saturday, hold an open-air vigil in London's Hyde Park on Sunday, and conduct the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman in Birmingham on Monday.

Organisers were expecting 100,000 of the faithful in Glasgow, 80,000 in London and 65,000 in Birmingham but are struggling to fill the seats.

And it's not because Benedict, in a gesture no doubt appreciated by all Britain's fluent Latin-speakers, has chosen to say the main parts of his services in that all but lost language (apparently easier to understand than his heavily-accented English).

No, it seems they have been turned off by the cost. There is a charge for attending any of the main events, up to £25 for a "pilgrim's pack".

I suppose that's the price of salvation. Still cheaper than seeing U2.

* Duncan Gillies comes from a good Catholic family who continue to pray for his soul