Well, it might be fun to imagine a soccer match between aging Cardinals and Members of the UK’s Royal Household, with Prince Philip muttering something about “smelly dagos” and Prince Harry streaking across the pitch at half-time, prompting Her Majesty to pronounce loudly in Chuck’s general direction “One thinks they named the wrong son Prince Willy” … but this is a serious matter.
How is it that the Pope’s Christmas Message is receiving considerably more media coverage than Her Majesty’s?
Early this morning I took a look at one of Canada’s major news sites, CNews, and found this…
“His Holiness” gets top billing, and H.M. is stuck somewhere well down the website under the heading “World News.” Now, the last time I checked, the Queen was still the Head of State of Canada, unless Premier Harper has declared himself “President for Life.” That might have been top of his Christmas Wish List, but I doubt he actually did it. So, why does the Pope get top billing, in a country which also, the last time I checked, is a secular country?
And this is not confined to Canada. Here in Malaysia, The Star’s website has the Pope at the top, and the Queen nowhere to be seen…
As far as I can figure Roman Catholics make up just 3% of the country’s population, whereas the Queen is the Head of the Commonwealth, of which Malaysia is a member country. How does the Pope manage to get star billing (pun intended) in Malaysia? Is there something in his message that deserves such treatment? Has he some papal recipe to cure the world of all its ills? Not that I can see.
At this point, you might be wondering “What did the Brits do?” Okay, you weren’t, but I was. Well, the Daily Torygraph gave the pair almost equal billing. The Pope didn’t get a photo, but they are side-by-side on the home page…
The Times, meanwhile, bless its royal socks, put H.M. at the top, and the Pope?… nowhere!
…which, to my mind, is just as it should be in a non-secular state, even though it might want to claim otherwise.
But what I’m wondering most of all, is how did the Pope get such amazing coverage? Does the world’s population really want to hear his thoughts, over and above those of the Queen, or any other Head of State? Is this the doing of his media people? If so, they all deserve instant Sainthood.
All of which is just a bit of Boxing Day silliness. I confess I have about as much interest in the ramblings of VVIPs as they do in mine. So, I now return to you to your regularly scheduled programming…
