Pope may deserve his critics, but don’t take all of them at face value

ISN’T hindsight a wonderful thing?

A week before Pope Benedict’s trip to Britain, the potential for mishap seems almost endless. What with high-profile atheists threatening to arrest him for covering up child sexual abuse and constant media questioning of the multi-million pound cost of the three-day jamboree, the old man must be wondering why he ever let himself be talked into the idea.

This will be a very different British papal visit to the last one in 1982. When Benedict XVI lands at Edinburgh airport, he will not drop to his knees and kiss the ground, as John Paul II did. This is not only because the octogenarian pontiff is physically frail. Bluntly, Benedict wasn’t sprinkled with the same stardust.