Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity

rug

(82,333 posts) Tue Nov 5, 2013, 11:30 AM Nov 2013

Bonfire Night should be banned because its 'anti-Catholic', say campaigners

Bonfire night should be stopped argue anti-Catholic campaigners [REX]

By: Ben Borland
Published: Sun, November 3, 2013

Burning an effigy of the Pope at Lewes, East Sussex, is especially offensive, they insist, and setting fire to a likeness of Guy Fawkes is just outdated.

A new study also shows Bonfire Night is the worst day of the year for burglaries, as families get carried away with fireworks and forget to lock up.

Insurer Aviva says over the past decade 22 per cent more thefts are reported on November 5. Bonfire Night commemorates the Gunpowder Plot of November 5, 1605, when Catholic rebels tried to blow up Parliament and kill the Scottish Protestant king James I.

They were caught, tortured and put to death, but Fawkes declared: “Our intention was to blow back the beggarly Scots to their native mountains.”

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/440845/Bonfire-Night-should-be-banned-because-its-anti-Catholic-say-campaigners

I wonder if anyone has compared the backlash to the Gunpowder Plot with the backlash to 9/11.

3 replies

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Bonfire Night should be banned because its 'anti-Catholic', say campaigners (Original Post) rug Nov 2013 OP

Well, it commemorates the defeat of a plot to reconvert Britain to Catholicism by force nxylas Nov 2013 #1

I don't know. I hadn't been following this every year. rug Nov 2013 #2

Strictly speaking they don't burn 'the Pope' in effigy tjwmason Nov 2013 #3

nxylas

(6,440 posts)

1. Well, it commemorates the defeat of a plot to reconvert Britain to Catholicism by force

Reply to rug (Original post)

Tue Nov 5, 2013, 11:36 AM

Nov 2013

I'm not sure that anyone but the most rabid anti-Catholic conspiracy theorist would connect it to today's Catholic church, though. And I thought Lewes had stopped burning the Pope in effigy years ago?

rug

(82,333 posts)

2. I don't know. I hadn't been following this every year.

Reply to nxylas (Reply #1)

Tue Nov 5, 2013, 11:40 AM

Nov 2013

My sense is that Guy Fawkes was at least as much as an English nationalist as he was a Catholic.

tjwmason

(14,819 posts)

3. Strictly speaking they don't burn 'the Pope' in effigy

Reply to nxylas (Reply #1)

Sat Nov 9, 2013, 10:34 AM

Nov 2013

The Lewes bonfires burn Pope S. Pius V in 'retribution' for his Bull Regnans in excelsis which attempted to depose Queen Elizabeth I - it later got merged into the celebrations of 5 November.

He is still there, along with various more topical figures (I would imagine that the Prime Minister is burned in effigy every year).

I don't think that there's any connexion in the modern mind with Catholicism.

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