At the Sermon on the Mount and every other great religious event in history there must have been people like me and the pilgrims of Coach A from St Mary\u2019s Cathedral in Newcastle: at the back, and not quite able to see.<\/p>\n
But there was no doubt among this particular group of Catholics \u2013 \u00a0who travelled from\u00a0 England to Scotland yesterday to be present at the Pope\u2019s first Mass in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow \u2013 of the historic nature of the occasion.<\/p>\n
This was not just the first official visit of a pope to Britain since the Reformation. It was the first papal state visit ever to a land which, they heard, saw the arrival of Christianity long before the territory was divided into Scotland and England. This was a historic moment and they were pleased and honoured to be there. Even at the back.<\/p>\n
The words of the Pope were difficult to hear, thanks to a combination of his heavy Germanic accent and the swooshing of the high wind through the trees. But they got the drift that the essence of religion must be to prompt believers to look on every person as a brother and sister and be examples of their faith to the rest of the public.<\/p>\n
It was very much what they had wanted to hear. The party had set out from Newcastle early in the morning, encumbered with folding chairs, hats and scarves, large bags filled with flasks, plastic bottles and provisions \u2013 burdens which got slowly heavier as they made the 45 minute trek from the ad hoc coachpark on the northbound carriageway of the M77 into the papal venue.<\/p>\n
As they travelled north they had exchanged experiences. \u201cDon\u2019t expect anything as exciting as The Canterbury Tales<\/em>\u201d, one quipped. Even so each one had a personal story which, put together, told a very different account of the state of the Catholic Church than the one which has made such lurid headlines in recent times.<\/p>\n Take Peter Quinn of St Cuthbert\u2019s parish in North Shields. He is a member of the SVP, the Society of St Vincent de Paul, a low-profile organisation which provides one-to-one help for people in need \u2013 \u201cthe elderly, the sick, the housebound, single mums, anyone who\u2019s struggling a bit,\u201d he said. Last year members of the SVP put in a staggering million hours of\u00a0 voluntary work across the UK.<\/p>\n \u201cWe commit to weekly visits to people at home and in hospital. Often people just need company. Sometimes they need furniture or clothing or help with bills,\u201d he said. \u201cEven in the 21st century there\u2019s still a fair bit of poverty about.\u201d<\/p>\n Among Peter\u2019s regulars are a man who had his tongue removed because of cancer and has difficulty communicating with people.\u00a0 \u201cSome of our members do eight hours a week but I can only do two or three because I work fulltime,\u201d he added. His paid job is supporting asylum seekers.<\/p>\n Seated across the aisle of the coach was Moira Potts, a retired dance teacher and housewife. She works as a volunteer with the Catholic aid agency, Cafod, through which Catholics last year gave \u00a347m for the relief on international poverty. She supervises the collection of money from family fasting days in which the faithful donate the money saved from eating less.<\/p>\n \u201cI started during the Ethiopian famine in 1984. At first I felt overwhelmed by the scale of it but then Cardinal Hume said that if everybody does a little we can move mountains.\u201d She also raises funds for Water Aid and AIDS orphans in Africa but the religious dimension is important to her.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an extremely important constituent of my faith. It\u2019s important that raising money is linked to fasting. The gospel message is about looking to the needs of others and fasting is about forgetting about ourselves. Being a Catholic is not about being a member of some private club. If you pray for those for whom you are raising money you are in communion with them.\u201d<\/p>\n Many on the coach were retired teachers. Even more in park were children from local Catholic schools. Some 2,700 of all the schools in Scotland, England and Wales are Catholic and the community, in addition to the taxes it pays, contributes an additional \u00a3200m in donations to the state system.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we try to teach in a Catholic school is the principle of loving your neighbour as yourself which means showing concern for each other,\u201d said Peter Burbridge, at the back of the bus. He had just retired after 36 years at St Cuthbert\u2019s High School in Newcastle. \u201cObviously in a school of 1100 boys there\u2019s always bound to be friction but the gospel offers an aspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n What of the claim that faith schools are divisive? \u201cThey can be,\u201d he replied. \u201cBut they can also provide the glue which helps a community stick together. The ethos they create is conducive to a disciplined learning environment. That has changed over the years, as society has become both more informal and more secularised. But it still offers something that many parents want.\u201d<\/p>\n At his old school there was a particularly high percentage of boys from Muslim Sikh and other faiths. \u201cThere are many people who want something more than a bald secularism.\u201d<\/p>\n So how did Pope Benedict measure up to what the faithful had expected? \u00a0The German pontiff descended the long staircase from the high Bellahouston altar to wild cheers and a sea of waving yellow and white papal flags. The Newcastle contingent cheered with enthusiasm.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of people who are frightened of the Catholic Church because they want to live their lives as they want and they don\u2019t want anyone to tell them that that is wrong with that,\u201d said Sheila Smith, a 75-year-old pilgrim who is one of a rota of Christians always present at the little chapel in Tyneside\u2019s massive Metrocentre shopping complex. She is also a bereavement counsellor with the charity Cruse.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Pope\u2019s key message is that people should be thinking of others before themselves. But we live in a society that encourages people to focus on themselves and they don\u2019t want to hear the church saying that they should be focussing on others. The Pope\u2019s message is a threat to their comfort zone.\u201d<\/p>\n The Pope had not mentioned child abuse. \u201cThere are people who have suffered immensely at the hands of Catholic priests,\u201d said Peter Burbridge. \u201cBut the Pope has done a lot to establish a policy of zero tolerance and is making every effort to clean up the situation. He has said so before and that seems a good response.\u201d<\/p>\n The little group helped one another pack their belongings and set off for a journey back to the coach which they knew would see less arduous than it had on the way. They are a community who have over the years helped one another through various personal crises and bereavements.\u00a0 Helping others was at their heart.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the Pope has come at exactly the right time,\u201d said Moira Potts. \u201cThere is so much negativity about in this country just now. Jobs, homes, our sense of security are all being eroded. We become so bound up with our own problems and perspectives. The Pope offers a message of hope. If people will listen with an open mind instead of judging him on sensational headlines about the worst aspects of humanity which is to be found in the church as everywhere else. In a country where people are starting to feel a bit sorry for themselves he reminds us of something greater.\u201d<\/p>\n Even if you are stood right at the back.<\/p>\n \n