THE Dean of St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, the Very Revd Phillip Jensen, has criticised the “errors” of the Roman Catholic Church, but says it is “an honour” for Sydney to host World Youth Day (15-20 July).
Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Dean quoted the Thirty-Nine Articles, and commented that, since then, “the Roman Catholic Church has added to its errors”. “There is nothing in modern Roman Catholicism that reduces our [Protestants’] need to protest.”
But, in the face of public criticism of the cost to the taxpayer of World Youth Day — more than $A120 million — Dean Jensen argued that Roman Catholics have “every right to enjoy a gathering of their people”. While he would not be welcoming the Pope, he would not “pray for rain on his parade”: “our Father in heaven sends sun and rain on all — as the Bible puts it, the ‘just and unjust’ alike”.