HOLYROOD TURNOUT:AT THE entrance to Holyrood House Palace, official residence of Queen Elizabeth II in Scotland, all was remarkably quiet throughout the morning yesterday, before the pope's arrival and afterwards.
The numbers at barriers in front of the Scottish parliament building, across from the palace, amounted to no more than the low hundreds and included young people, many of them tourists from Germany and the US, older local people, police and media.
The nearest to a protester was Margaret Singh, originally Kavanagh, from Castletownroche in Cork, who was there with her husband, Neville. Both are retired but Margaret had a message for the pope printed on her T-shirt. It read: “Oh Papa, we Catholics are in trouble.” On the back it said: “Pray for us sinners.”
The Singhs have been in Edinburgh for 40 years. He worked as a counsellor with the health services and she had worked at an Aids hospice. She was there “to protest at Catholic Church teaching on condoms, and paedophilia among priests”.
Kathleen McNamara, originally a Masterson from Ballycroy, Co Mayo, who has been in Edinburgh for “50-odd years”, was there “just to see the pope”. Earlier she had fallen, but refused to go to hospital.
Church of Ireland Primate Archbishop Alan Harper was there “as an ecumenical gesture and at the invitation of the Queen”. On his way to the State reception inside the palace, he felt there were “all sorts of uncertainties surrounding the visit”. It “could be difficult if the numbers are not as great as expected”.
In what the pope says, “his tone and the respect” with which he addressed critics “would also be significant” and as he addresses the “variety of malaises in the churches”. The pope was “extremely engaged with the issue of secularism, which I wouldn’t be personally”, the Archbishop said. There was also “the huge issue of abuse”. Regarding the beatification of Cardinal Newman on Sunday, Archbishop Harper noted “the new emphasis on the primacy of conscience in Newman’s work”. He was intrigued by “the revisionism” involved.
At another entrance, Catholic Primate Cardinal Seán Brady stood in a long line of dignitaries waiting to enter the palace.
It was the only queue in the area yesterday.