Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

New York City atheists speak out against papal visit
By Kate Ray
Washington Square News (NYU)
04/22/2008

(U-WIRE) NEW YORK — As the pope headed back to Vatican City Sunday night, there were those who were perfectly happy to see him go.

Hundreds of thousands of people came to watch and pray with Pope Benedict XVI during his trip to New York. And a few came to protest.

Members of New York City Atheists — who call themselves a "nonprofit, nonpartisan educational association" on their Web site — organized and spoke out against the papal tour.

The group gathered Saturday to protest the pope and raise awareness about atheism, spokespeople said.

While the pope conducted a morning Mass inside Saint Patrick's Cathedral in midtown Manhattan, atheists organized a peaceful demonstration outside to protest the politics of the Catholic Church and recent anti-atheist comments made by the pope.

They also hoped to educate the public about atheism and reduce the stigma that surrounds it, they said.

"We're here to bring a light on several issues," said Rich Sander, one of the protest's organizers.

He mentioned the separation of church and state, the cost of the papal visit — paid for, he said, by the city and federal government — and certain comments about atheism that the pope made last February.

"He said atheists are the source of evil and injustice in the world. It's highly unethical if the pope can do that," Sander said. "That's one of the reasons I'm here."

The Vatican's transcript of Pope Benedict XVI's second encyclical, a letter to the church's bishops, reads: "The atheism of the 19th and 20th centuries is — in its origins and aims — a type of moralism. ... It is no accident that this idea has led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice."

Other protesters focused less on the pope himself and more on the history of sexual abuse and corruption within the Catholic Church.

"Whether this pope is a nice pope or not, nothing changes," said Ellen Kashis, a self-declared atheist.

The protesters said their demonstration had not elicited any dramatic responses, either positive or negative.

"The reception has been largely that of anyone handing out leaflets in the streets. They'll stop if they don't have anywhere to be and everyone has somewhere to be," said Seth Pollack, a City University of New York-Queens freshman and the Secular Student Alliance NYC campus organizer.

The protest's secondary aim was to increase awareness of the atheist movement and to encourage people to join it.

Pollack said because of the stigma surrounding atheists, many would-be atheists are afraid to come forward.

"You don't have to suffer in silence," he said. "There are choices in the atheist community."

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