English Burn Pope in Effigy

Catholic universities often speak of their “Catholic heritage,” and then embrace “diversity.” Critics charge that one English town does the reverse: it embraces its anti-Catholic heritage while giving lip service to diversity.

As the BBC news reported Nov. 5, 1997, the town of Lewes, in Sussex county, England, once again burned Pope Paul V in effigy on Guy Fawkes Day, Nov. 5 this year.

“Father Eric Flood, the parish priest in Lewes, says the ritual of burning effigies of Pope Paul V in the town centre every year is ‘moral racism.’ His comments come as one of the five Bonfire Societies of Lewes says it will go ahead with plans which include igniting a firework-stuffed effigy of the man who was Pope at the time of the Gunpowder plot.

Keith Austin of the Cliff Bonfire Society defended the event as part of the carnival's tradition.

“That tradition began when Guy Fawkes led a Catholic insurrection to get rid of the Protestant King James the First of England. The plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill the king failed and Guy Fawkes along with his co-conspirators was hanged. A relieved king decided to fertilize anti-Catholic feeling by making the event a public holiday. It's no longer a public holiday in Britain but Lewes, where 17 Protestants were [put to death during a Catholic reign] enthusiastically kept up the tradition. Tonight 3,000 people will parade through the town in what has become one of Britain's wildest nights out. For most of the thousands of people who line the streets every year it's a party—with banners, flaming torches, and singing. But for the Catholic Church as long as the Cliff society continues to burn its effigies—which last year included the current Catholic bishop—it's an anti-Catholic ritual that's got to stop.”