http://http://www.independent.ie/nat...w-1271826.html

Pope denounced as 'anti-Christ' in radio fire and brimstone row


By John Cooney
Wednesday January 23 2008

A new Messiah has risen to save the Protestant people of Ulster from the heretical snares of Rome and to keep the Pope, "the anti-Christ", out of the North.

An unholy row on yesterday's 'Joe Duffy show' began innocently enough, when the chief aide to Nigel Dodds, the North's Enterprise Minister, voiced his objections to the sale of Catholic rosary beads inside St Patrick's Cathedral, in Dublin.

Wallace Thompson challenged the Anglican Dean of St Patrick's, Dr Robert MacCarthy, for selling rosaries not sanctioned in Holy Scripture, in the cathedral gift shop.

The Dean explained that the beads were sold because the shop attracted visitors of all denominations, and revenue from the sales helped finance the cathedral's upkeep.

During an hour-long phone-in, Mr Thompson castigated these misguided papists for adhering to a corrupt church that demanded Protestant partners in a mixed marriage to surrender to their creed.

The temperature became as hot as the fires of hell when Mr Thompson pleaded with Irish Catholics to abandon their idolatrous prayer to the Virgin Mary.

Then Mr Thompson, speaking in a personal capacity, escalated his war of religions when he denounced the Pope as the anti-Christ and announced he would oppose plans to bring Benedict to the North.

"The Pope is the anti-Christ ... a lot of Protestants probably might not hold (that view) but it is still enshrined in the standards," he said.

"It is a strong statement to make, but in expressing those views I am not conflicting with the main teachings of the main churches," Mr Thompson thundered.

Oppose

The 54-year-old married father-of-three, who is a regular preacher across the North, and a member of the Independent Orange, went on to warn that true Protestants would totally oppose a papal visit.

SDLP Assembly member Dolores Kelly said Mr Thompson's fundamentalist language was a throwback to the North's troubled past.

"I don't think he has any right to deprive the people of the north, and in particular the Catholic population,of an opportunity to greet and meet their spiritual leader," she said.

Sinn Fein Assembly group leader, John O'Dowd, described Mr Thompson's comments as "deeply insulting to many, many people across this island".

Last night, a worldly wise DUP official was at pains to emphasise that Mr Thompson was not speaking in a political capacity.