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More than 100 000 back pope
20/01/2008 19:26 - (SA)
Vatican City - More than 100 000 people filled St Peter's Square on Sunday in a show of support for Pope Benedict XVI after protests by scientists forced him to cancel a university speech.
The pilgrims gave a roar of approval when the Pope Benedict, speaking after his weekly blessing, said: "I encourage all of you, dear academics, to always be respectful of the opinions of others, and to seek the truth and the good with an open and responsible mind."
The 80-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church cancelled a planned speech at Rome's La Sapienza university on Thursday after dozens of professors and students protested his presence at the secular school.
"I want especially to salute university youths, professors and all of you who have come today in such large numbers to St Peter's Square to ... express your solidarity," the pope said. Three-minute applause
In a rare unscripted exhortation at the end of the appearance from his apartment overlooking the iconic square, the pope said: "Let us go forward in this spirit of fraternity and love for freedom and truth, and common commitment for a brotherly and tolerant society."
The final burst of applause from the pilgrims, including La Sapienza students, lasted about three minutes.
A Vatican spokesperson put at 200 000 the number of pilgrims at the event - billed in the Italian media as "pope day" - holding up banners with slogans such as "Holy Father We Love You" and "Long Live Freedom of Thought."
Tens of thousands more supporters watched video links of the event outside the Milan cathedral and in Verona, Italian media reported.
The cancellation of the pope's speech drew criticism from across the political spectrum in Italy. Prime Minister Romano Prodi said on Saturday: "As Prime Minister, a (former) university professor and citizen, this is not my idea of freedom and laicity."
Deputy Prime Minister Francesco Rutelli attended Sunday's rally, as well as former justice minister Clemente Mastella, who resigned just last week to face corruption charges. 'Smacked of exploitation'
University Minister Fabio Mussi raised a dissenting voice, saying the politicians' presence at the event "smacked of exploitation". The protest against the visit to La Sapienza, one of Italy's largest and oldest universities, was spearheaded by Marcello Cini, a professor emeritus of physics, who wrote to Rector Renato Guarini complaining of an "incredible violation" of the school's autonomy.
Sixty-seven professors and researchers of the university's physics department, as well as radical students, joined in the call for the pope to stay away.
But Paolo Flores D'Arcais, who writes for a prestigious philosophy magazine, MicroMega, said: "This is the world upside down. The pope ... is posing as a victim. He's the one who decided not to go the university, where he could have spoken."
Students opposed to the pope's visit staged "an anti-clergy week" during which they showed a film on Galileo, the 17th-century physicist who fell foul of Church doctrine by insisting that the Earth orbits the Sun.
Galileo was convicted of heresy by the Inquisition - the predecessor of the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith - that the pope formerly headed as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
The cancellation of the speech at La Sapienza, which has a student body of about 130 000, was the first in Benedict's diary since he became pope in April 2005.
Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, was loudly heckled when he spoke at La Sapienza in 1991.
- AFP
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