Nope to the Pope: Why buying tickets and not going is plain selfish
A Facebook page named “Nope to the Pope” is protesting the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland.
The page has encouraged people to book large numbers of free tickets to the events in August which won’t be used, to guarantee a low turnout at the events.
Over 1,000 people have clicked “attending” and another 4,000 marked themselves as “interested” on the social media event page. Easily thousands of tickets have been booked by members of the page, who won’t be attending the events.
I ordered 2 tickets myself as I thought my Nana would love to go. I also think it would be an exciting experience to see the leader of the world's largest organised religion. I don’t necessarily believe in the Catholic Church and I don’t attend it often but I still believe in God and I would like to accompany my Nana as I respect her beliefs and her Catholic upbringing.
When booking went live on Monday, 285,000 of the 500,000 tickets for mass in Dublin’s Phoenix Park were secured by 5pm. Tickets were free, but people are we’re asked to consider making a donation when booking.
There are many anti-Catholics who got free tickets online for the event so that it will look poorly attended. I do know multiple people who have booked over 12 tickets using different email accounts just to let them go to waste.
When Benedict XVI visited the United Kingdom the tickets were allocated to individual Deaneries to allocate to parish groups and parishioners. I think something similar should’ve happened in Ireland so the people who do want to go have a fair opportunity to get their tickets.
The older generation of Ireland who wanted to go may have not had access to the internet and couldn’t avail of tickets. I think that making the tickets available on the internet wasn’t the best idea as order generations couldn’t order them and they’d be the most interested in attending.
Some of the people who have ordered these tickets for them not to be used are supportive of LGBT rights. If they can respect the right to love, they should respect the right to let others express their religious beliefs and let them attend the service.
Just because you don’t agree with it doesn’t mean that you have to ruin it for others. Some people who are regular mass attendees, who visit Knock monthly and who have been to Lourdes can’t go now because of the “Nope to the Pope” movement.
It saddens me to think that the people who actually wanted to go will be sitting at home while many people have binned 12 tickets.
Leo Varadkar said that the people who have no intention of attending the event are “petty and mean-spirited” and I agree.
To strip people from having the opportunity to practice their religion is quite selfish just because they don’t have the same views.
People do have every right to be angry with the Catholic Church. But denying those who wish to practice their religion and attend this event isn’t the way to go about it.
